Artemis II Moon flyby: comms blackout at 23:47 BST

Here’s the moment to put in your diary: at 23:47 BST on Monday 6 April 2026, Artemis II passes behind the Moon and contact with Earth will pause for about 40 minutes. NASA’s schedule lists loss of communications at 18:47 Eastern Time, closest approach to the Moon at 19:02, and all of this is planned, not a fault. Times can shift slightly as the flight evolves, so keep an eye on official updates. (nasa.gov)

What actually happens in a blackout? The Moon itself blocks radio and laser links between Orion and mission control, so no voice, video or telemetry gets through. The crew keep working through a pre‑agreed observation period-capturing views and data of the lunar surface-and once Orion peeks back around the limb, signal returns immediately. Think of it like driving through a tunnel: you don’t stop the car; you just lose the radio until you’re out the other side. (nasa.gov)

For the four astronauts-Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen-these are the quietest minutes of the trip. In a pre‑launch BBC interview, pilot Victor Glover suggested we use the blackout as a shared pause to send good thoughts or prayers and hope for a clean reacquisition of signal. That’s a simple way for all of us to feel part of deep‑space exploration. (aol.com)

We’ve seen this kind of silence before. During Apollo, crews slipped behind the far side on every orbit. Michael Collins-alone in Apollo 11’s command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked the surface-spent roughly 48 minutes at a time out of contact. In his 1974 memoir Carrying the Fire he wrote of feeling “truly alone,” yet calm and focused. It was isolation by design, not by danger. (en.wikipedia.org)

If you’re in the UK, you’re part of the story too. Engineers at Cornwall’s Goonhilly Earth Station are helping to track Orion by passively receiving its radio signal and measuring tiny shifts to refine the spacecraft’s position-building on support they provided during Artemis I. It’s a validation exercise for British deep‑space capability while the crew makes history. (itv.com)

Looking ahead, Europe is working on a fix for this very problem. The European Space Agency’s Moonlight programme aims to deploy lunar satellites providing communications and navigation-including on the south pole and far side-so future missions can stay connected around the clock. That turns today’s blackout into tomorrow’s teaching example. (esa.int)

Media‑literacy check as you watch: “communications blackout” doesn’t mean secrecy or crisis; it means line‑of‑sight physics. NASA has published an hour‑by‑hour plan, will share live views when bandwidth allows, and offers a real‑time tracker so you can follow Orion’s path for yourself. When the signal drops, the plan is simply doing what it says on the tin. (nasa.gov)

For timing, NASA lists key events in Eastern Time. Converting for the UK: loss of comms at 18:47 ET is 23:47 BST; closest approach at 19:02 ET is 00:02 BST on Tuesday. The mission timeline can move a little based on real‑time dynamics, so we always check NASA’s feed before teaching or streaming in class. (nasa.gov)

One more bit of context to share with students: on Flight Day 6, the crew are set to beat Apollo 13’s record for humans’ farthest distance from Earth. The exact moment depends on the final trajectory, but NASA’s published plan places the milestone on Monday before the flyby sequence concludes. It’s a neat data point to plot on a distance‑over‑time graph. (nasa.gov)

Try this as a classroom or living‑room activity: sketch the Sun‑Earth‑Moon system, draw Orion’s path, and predict the blackout window using simple geometry. When Acquisition of Signal pings back and live comms resume, compare your estimate with NASA’s timestamp and talk about what worked and what didn’t-because that’s how spaceflight, and learning, move forward.