Ammon News - The Artemis II astronauts saw a side of the moon never before seen by human eyes over the weekend — but it was just an appetizer for their historic lunar flyby expected to begin Monday afternoon.

Orientale basin — a huge, black impact crater on the far side of the moon — came into full view of Artemis II on Saturday, with the crew beaming back stunning photos of the formation as they hurtled through space about 200,000 miles from Earth.

“In this new image from our @NASAArtemis II crew, you can see Orientale basin on the right edge of the lunar disk,” NASA wrote while sharing the photo in a Sunday X post.

“This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,” the space agency hailed.

But it was just the first of many historic glimpses the four-person crew will get in their 10-day mission around the moon — the real show is expected to begin around 2:45 p.m. EST, when the spacecraft begins its highly-anticipated lunar flyby.

The flyby should last just over six hours and end around 9:20 p.m., with a roughly 40-minute communications blackout beginning around 6:47 p.m. as the moon blocks signals between the Artemis II Orion capsule and Earth.

During that time the crew will be flying around the moon at altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 miles, and the moon will appear through the capsule windows to be about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length.

But the astronauts will be seeing what no human eye has ever seen — the far side of the moon, which is perpetually locked from view on Earth and was hidden in shadow during every Apollo mission that orbited the over 50 years ago.

The far side has been closely photographed, but only by unmanned probes.

The crew already began trying to wrap their heads around the surreal experience of seeing a whole new view of the moon as they approached over the weekend.

New York Post