{"id":56262,"date":"2026-04-06T02:59:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=56262"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:00:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:00:01","slug":"the-40-minutes-when-the-artemis-crew-loses-contact-with-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=56262","title":{"rendered":"The 40 minutes when the Artemis crew loses contact with the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BBC:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No-one will have been further from home than the Artemis astronauts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as the Earth shrinks ever smaller in their rear-view mirror, they&#8217;ve had a constant connection with mission control in Houston, Texas. The calm words from the Nasa team have given the crew a comforting link with home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That link is about to be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the astronauts pass behind the Moon at about 23:47 BST on Monday, the radio and laser signals that allow the back-and-forth communication between the spacecraft and Earth will be blocked by the Moon itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For about 40 minutes, the four astronauts will be alone, each with their own thoughts and feelings, travelling through the darkness of space. A profound moment of solitude and silence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Artemis pilot Victor Glover told us he hopes the world will use the time to come together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When we&#8217;re behind the Moon, out of contact with everybody, let&#8217;s take that as an opportunity,&#8221; he told BBC News before the mission. &#8220;Let&#8217;s pray, hope, send your good thoughts and feelings that we get back in contact with the crew.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 50 years ago, the Apollo astronauts also experienced the isolation brought by a loss of signal during their missions to the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps none more so than Apollo 11&#8217;s Michael Collins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/150a\/live\/92891df0-30cb-11f1-8eb1-c3991b038902.jpg.webp\" alt=\"NASA Astronaut Michael Collins looks up towards a portal inside the Apollo 11 module\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Astronaut Michael Collins said he felt &#8220;truly alone&#8221; on the far side of the Moon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history taking the first steps on the lunar surface, Collins was alone in the command module, orbiting the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As his craft passed behind the far side, contact with the pair on the lunar surface, as well as with mission control, vanished for 48 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He described the experience in his 1974 memoir Carrying the Fire, saying he felt &#8220;truly alone&#8221; and &#8220;isolated from any known life&#8221;, but that he did not feel fear or loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In later interviews, he described the peace and tranquillity brought by the radio silence, saying it offered a break from the constant requests from mission control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC: No-one will have been further from home than the Artemis astronauts. But as the Earth shrinks ever smaller in their rear-view mirror, they&#8217;ve had a constant connection with mission control in Houston, Texas. The calm words from the Nasa team have given the crew a comforting link with home. That link is about to be lost. As the astronauts pass behind the Moon at about 23:47 BST on Monday, the radio and laser signals that allow the back-and-forth communication between the spacecraft and Earth will be blocked by the Moon itself. For about 40 minutes, the four astronauts will&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56264,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56262\/revisions\/56264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}