D-day for the Artemis astronauts, who will fly around the Moon

This will be the pinnacle of their mission: the four astronauts of Artémis 2 will on Monday be the first humans to fly around the Moon since 1972, a flyby accomplished for the first time in history by a woman and by a black astronaut.

More than four days after their departure from Florida, the three NASA astronauts, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and their Canadian colleague Jeremy Hansen will arrive near the star.

Around 04:40 GMT on Monday, they will begin the final straight line by entering the "sphere of influence" of the Moon, where the gravitational attraction of the star takes over that of the Earth.

They will not land on the Moon but it will remain no less historic because all the Apollo missions (1968-1972) took exclusively white American men, generally ex-military.

In the entire history of space exploration, no Russian or Chinese has ventured beyond 400 km from Earth, the distance from stations in Earth orbit. Only probes have returned to observe the Moon.

For seven hours, starting at 6:45 p.m. GMT, the Moon will be in full frame in the window of the Orion spacecraft.

The Moon will appear to them as big as "a basketball held at arm's length", described Noah Petro, head of NASA's planetary geology laboratory, to AFP.

- "Goosebumps" -

The four crew members prepared for more than two years, training themselves to recognize geological formations and accurately describe them to scientists down here, particularly the brown or beige hues of the soil.

Their oral descriptions as well as their notes and photographs - three Nikon cameras were taken on board - should make it possible to learn more about the geology and history of our natural satellite.

But also to excite us, hopes NASA, which will broadcast the event live on several platforms such as Netflix and YouTube, with the exception of 40 minutes during which communications will be cut, blocked by the Moon.

“Hearing this crew describe the lunar surface will give you goosebumps,” promised Kelsey Young, scientific manager of the mission at a press conference this weekend.

If the astronauts of the Apollo program did it before them, more than 50 years ago, most of us "were not born, so this will really be a first for us", points out Derek Buzasi, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago to AFP.

The Artemis astronauts will also surpass the Apollo 13 record by becoming the human beings to have traveled furthest from the blue planet, venturing more than 406,000 km.

- Earthrise and sunset -

They will fly behind the Moon and discover its hidden side, the one that is never visible from Earth.

They will probably see "regions of this