Artemis astronaut shares Christian message before blackout

American astronaut Victor Glover on Monday evening spoke of Jesus’ love in a message broadcast to Earth just before the Orion spacecraft passed behind the moon. While the astronauts were working to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, one of the greatest mysteries on Earth was love, he said. Jesus said that the greatest command was to love God, and the second was to love your neighbor as yourself, Glover said.

As the Artemis II crew prepared to go out of radio communication for 40 minutes, they could still feel love from Earth, Glover said. “And to all of you down there on Earth … we love you from the moon,” he added. Glover, fellow American crew member Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen both previously shared Easter greetings on Sunday.

The Orion spacecraft reached its closest point to the moon around 7 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, during the radio blackout. The craft was about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface, according to NASA. The crew snapped the first photos of the far side of the moon taken by people in space. They restored communications with NASA’s Deep Space Network at roughly 7:30 p.m. before witnessing a solar eclipse and beginning their return journey.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s earlier report on the Artemis II mission.