2026年4月10日 / 美国东部时间晚上8:46 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：路易斯·希拉尔多、马克·奥斯本
随着周五傍晚在太平洋溅落，史诗级的阿尔忒弥斯二号月球任务圆满结束。
美国民众全程关注着四名宇航员的行程——指挥官里德·怀斯曼、飞行员维克多·格洛弗，以及任务专家克里斯蒂娜·科赫和杰里米·汉森——他们绕月飞行，抵达了比以往任何人都更深远的太空区域。
以下是这次突破性任务的9大亮点。
1. 阿尔忒弥斯二号任务从佛罗里达州发射升空
火箭于美国东部时间4月1日周三下午6:35从佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心发射升空。这场壮观的发射是53年前阿波罗计划结束后，首次载人登月任务。
猎户座飞船舱体和美国国家航空航天局的太空发射系统火箭此前从未搭载过人类，仅进行过一次无人试飞。但本次发射堪称完美。
2. 机组人员在太空度过首日
机组人员开启了忙碌的首日行程，他们用约24小时环绕地球轨道运行，对猎户座飞船进行全面测试，待美国国家航空航天局批准后再启程前往月球。格洛弗还趁机测试了飞船的手动控制系统，为未来任务做准备。
猎户座飞船约90%的生命维持系统此前从未在太空中接受过测试。
“我们将要前往极其遥远的地方。这24小时的轨道飞行让我们有时间测试所有环境控制和生命维持系统……它能否净化我们的二氧化碳？能否保障我们的生命？我们能否饮用循环水？”怀斯曼在发射前对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻说道，“在前往月球之前，我们必须完成这些测试。”
当然，他们最终获得了出发许可。
3. 机组人员分享飞船拍摄的首批地球照片
就在全世界关注阿尔忒弥斯二号的太空任务时，地面上的人们得以首次看到飞船拍摄的完整地球影像——这是50多年来人类首次亲眼目睹这类画面。
怀斯曼拍摄的照片成为首张由猎户座飞船拍摄并公开的地球影像，拍摄时间为4月3日。
“相信我们，地球看起来美极了，”格洛弗在回忆地球景象时说道，“无论你来自哪里、样貌如何，我们都是一家人。”
随着推进器点火，飞船加速飞向月球。
4. 机组人员等待绕月飞行，庆祝复活节
月球距离地球十分遥远——往返大约需要四天时间，因此机组人员有充足时间为这项重大任务做准备。
“今早醒来，透过舷窗看到完整的月球在飞船前方，感觉棒极了，”怀斯曼从飞船内说道，“毫无疑问，我们现在正朝着目标前进，由衷感谢所有为此付出努力的人。”
机组人员在环绕月球背面飞行前，有时间在周日庆祝复活节。他们还庆祝了汉森在首次太空飞行中获得金色宇航员徽章。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻在距离地球约18万英里的位置与机组人员进行了对话。
“我们瞥见了月球背面，那个永远无法从地球看到的一面，”怀斯曼说道，“舷窗外的景象截然不同，这太不可思议了。这真的让我们重新审视了自己在宇宙中的位置。”
5. 机组人员以怀斯曼已故妻子的名字命名月球陨石坑
在一场充满情感的致敬活动中，汉森表示，他和同事科赫、格洛弗决定以怀斯曼的妻子的名字命名一个月球陨石坑“卡罗尔”，他的妻子于2020年因癌症去世。汉森分享这一命名时，可以看到其他机组人员擦拭眼泪。
“这将是月球上的一颗明亮光点，我们希望将其命名为卡罗尔，”汉森说道。怀斯曼后来表示，这是本次任务中最触动人心的时刻。
他表示，机组人员是在发射前几天接受医学隔离期间提出这个纪念提议的。
“那对我来说是一个动情的时刻，我觉得这是一份无比珍贵的礼物，”怀斯曼在周三的天地连线新闻发布会上说道。
6. 机组人员完成绕月飞行，创下新的最远飞行纪录
本次任务在4月6日周一达到顶点，当时猎户座飞船在月球背面进入了40分钟的通信静默状态。
就在当晚美国东部时间晚上7点刚过，机组人员创下了人类距离地球最远的飞行纪录。
根据美国国家航空航天局的数据，这一新纪录——距离地球252756英里——比1970年阿波罗13号创下的纪录超出了4000多英里。
几天前，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻询问科赫，当机组人员脱离通信范围，成为月球背面四人组，而其余人类都在注视着月球正面时，她会想些什么。“感恩，”她说道。
“如果你能想想团聚的意义，以及在这段时间与亲人分离的意义，反思这一切，或许我们都会有所感悟，”科赫说道。
7. 照片展示日食与罕见的月球背面视角
机组人员拍摄的精美照片于4月7日周二公布，也就是他们绕月飞行后的第二天，照片展示了壮观的景象和太空中的日食景观。
“虽然这些照片鼓舞人心，我想我们很多人都能感受到机组人员当时的心情，但这些照片背后蕴含着大量科学价值，”阿尔忒弥斯科学飞行行动主管凯尔西·杨对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻说道。
照片中包括一张令人惊叹的月球遮挡太阳的画面。这场日食在地球上无法看到，只有猎户座上的机组人员才能观测到。格洛弗表示，照片无法展现这一小时奇观的万分之一。
“因为人类可能还没有进化到能看到我们此刻所见的景象，”他说道，“这真的难以形容，太神奇了。”
查看更多令人惊叹的照片。
8. 机组人员带着无数回忆返回地球
月球已经落在身后，越来越小——地球出现在前方，越来越大——机组人员对刚刚经历的一切感到震撼。
“那里有许多坑洞，那些看起来仿佛无尽的无底深坑，”格洛弗说道。
汉森回忆起在深空度过的40分钟无线电静默时光，以及在月球背面与地球完全失去联系的感受。
“现在一想起来我就起鸡皮疙瘩，手心都出汗了，但看着家园星球从月球后方消失，那种感觉真的太奇妙了，”他说道。
9. 猎户座飞船完成历史性任务后溅落太平洋
随着飞船返回地球，它在距离太平洋上空75英里处以每小时24000英里的惊人速度进入可感知大气层——这个速度足以在大约6分钟内从洛杉矶飞到纽约。
短短几秒内，其16.5英尺宽的隔热罩表面温度就达到了约5000华氏度——相当于太阳可见表面温度的一半。
在经过峰值加热区的6分钟通信静默后，猎户座飞船脱离险境，在降落伞的辅助下，于加利福尼亚州圣迭戈外海溅落。
迈尔斯·多兰和马克·斯特拉斯曼对本文亦有贡献。
9 highlights from Artemis II’s epic journey around the moon
April 10, 2026 / 8:46 PM EDT / CBS News
By Luis Giraldo, Mark Osborne
With a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening, the epic Artemis II moon mission came to an end.
Americans have been tracking the progress of the four astronauts — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — as they looped around the moon, pushing deeper into space than anyone ever has before.
Here are nine highlights from that groundbreaking trip.
1. Artemis II mission blasts off from Florida
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on a 10-day journey around the moon and back. Aubrey Gemignani / NASA / Getty Images
The rocket lifted off Wednesday, April 1, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. ET. The spectacular launch marked the first piloted moonshot since the end of the Apollo program 53 years ago.
The Orion capsule and NASA’s Space Launch System rocket had never flown with people aboard, and had made just one unmanned test flight. But the launch was picture perfect.
2. Orion crew spends first day in space
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is pictured from one of the cameras mounted on its solar array wings on April 7. At the time this photo was taken at 8:33 a.m. ET, the Artemis II crew was in a sleep period. NASA via Getty Images
The crew woke up to a busy first day, spending about 24 hours orbiting the Earth while they put their Orion capsule through its paces before NASA could give them the go-ahead for their trip around the moon. Glover also got a chance to test out the manual controls on the capsule ahead of future missions.
About 90% of the Orion capsule’s life-support system had never been tested before in space.
“We are going really, really far away. And that one 24-hour orbit gives us time to check out all of our environmental control, life support systems. … Can it scrub our carbon dioxide? Can it keep us alive? Can we drink water?” Wiseman told CBS News before the launch. “We’ve got to go get those things tested before we press out to the moon.”
Of course, they were given the go.
3. Crew shares first images of Earth from capsule
An image of Earth taken by Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on April 3, 2026. NASA via AP
As the world was glued to Artemis II’s continued mission in space, those of us down on the surface got to see the first images of the full Earth from the capsule — a first for human eyes in over 50 years.
A photo taken by Wiseman became the first released picture of Earth taken from the Orion capsule, on April 3.
“Trust us. You look amazing. You look beautiful,” Glover said, reflecting on the view of Earth. “No matter where you’re from or, you know, what you look like. We’re all one people.”
With a firing of the thrusters, the capsule hurled on toward the moon.
4. Crew awaits trip around moon, celebrates Easter
The Artemis II astronauts sent down Easter greetings as their Orion spacecraft carried them toward a pass over the moon’s normally unseen far side the following day. NASA
The moon is a long way from Earth — about a four-day trip — so the crew had plenty of time to anticipate its big mission.
“It was really great to wake up this morning and look out the window and see the full moon off the front of the vehicle,” Wiseman said from the capsule. “There’s no doubt where we are heading right now and really appreciate all the work done there.”
The crew had time to celebrate Easter on Sunday before slingshotting around the far side of the moon. They also celebrated Hansen earning his gold astronaut wings on his first trip into space.
CBS News spoke to the crew about 180,000 miles from Earth.
“We were catching glimpses of the far side, the side that you can never see from Earth,” Wiseman said. “It just looked different out the window, and that is wild. It just really put our place in the universe in perspective.”
5. Crew names moon crater after Wiseman’s late wife
This map provided by NASA shows two small craters on the heavily pockmarked lunar surface that the Artemis II crew suggested names for: Integrity, after their spacecraft, and Carroll in honor of Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who died in 2020. NASA
In an emotional tribute, Hansen said he and fellow crew members Koch and Glover chose to name a moon crater “Carroll” after commander Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020. Hansen’s crewmates could be seen wiping away tears as he shared the dedication.
“It is a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call that Carroll,” Hansen said. Wiseman later said it was the most deeply profound moment of the mission.
He said his crewmates proposed the memorial when they were all in medical quarantine a few days before launch.
“That was an emotional moment for me, and I just thought that was just a total treasure,” Wiseman said during a space-to-ground news conference Wednesday.
6. Crew makes trip around the moon, sets new record for farthest flight
In this handout image provided by NASA, Earth sets at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, over the moon’s curved limb. NASA
The mission reached its apex on Monday, April 6, when Orion went dark for 40 minutes on the far side of the moon.
The crew set the record for the farthest distance any human has traveled from Earth just after 7 p.m. ET that night.
The new record — 252,756 miles from Earth — surpassed Apollo 13’s record from 1970 by more than 4,000 miles, according to NASA.
Days earlier, CBS News asked Koch what she would be thinking as the crew moved out of communication range and became one of four people on the opposite side of the moon while the rest of humanity was looking at the bright side. “Gratitude,” she said.
“If you could just think about what it means to be together and what it means to be apart from your loved ones during that time, and reflect on that, maybe we’ll all come to some realization,” Koch said.
7. Photos show eclipse, rare look at far side of the moon
This image taken by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, shows the moon eclipsing the sun. NASA
Stunning photos taken by the crew were released on Tuesday, April 7, one day after their loop around the moon, showing spectacular views and a solar eclipse in space.
“While they are inspirational, and I think a lot of us really feel a little bit of what the crew were feeling, there is a lot of science behind those images,” Kelsey Young, the Artemis science flight operations lead, told CBS News.
This photo was taken as the Artemis II crew flew over the terminator, the dividing line between light and darkness on the moon. The astronauts described this boundary between as “anything but a straight line.” NASA via Getty Images
Among the shots was a stunning image of the moon eclipsing the sun. The eclipse was not visible on Earth, only to the crew on Orion. Glover said the images did not do the hourlong spectacle justice.
“Because humans probably have not evolved to see what we’re seeing,” he said. “It is truly hard to describe. It is amazing.”
See more of the breathtaking photos.
8. Crew heads back to Earth with plenty of memories
The Artemis II crew take time out for a group hug inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. NASA via Getty Images
With the moon behind them and getting smaller — the Earth ahead of them, getting bigger — the crew was stunned by what they had just experienced.
“There were holes that, you know, craters that appeared to just be endless, bottomless pits,” Glover said.
Hansen recalled the 40 minutes of radio silence in deep space and what it was like to lose all contact with Earth while on the moon’s far side.
“Wow, I’m actually getting chills right now just thinking about it, my palms are sweating, but it is amazing to watch your home planet disappear behind the moon,” he said.
9. Orion splashes down after historic journey
NASA’s Orion spacecraft with the Artemis II crew lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Friday, April 10, 2026. Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images
As the capsule returned to Earth, it hit the discernible atmosphere about 75 miles above the Pacific Ocean at a blistering speed of 24,000 mph — fast enough to fly from Los Angeles to New York in about 6 minutes.
Within seconds, temperatures across its 16.5-foot-wide heat shield reached about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit — half as hot as the visible surface of the sun.
After a 6-minute communications blackout through the peak heating zone, Orion emerged for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California.
Miles Doran and Mark Strassmann contributed to this report.