Artemis II just made a historic loop around the moon

Apollo missions: NASA’s third human spaceflight program eventually took humans to the lunar surface. Along the way, this program sought to develop the technologies needed for long-distance space travel. It got a big kick-start after President John F. Kennedy proposed in 1961 creating the national goal of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

astronaut: Someone trained to travel into space for research and exploration.

basin: (in geology) A low-lying area, often below sea level. It collects water, which then deposits fine silt and other sediment on its bottom. Because it collects these materials, it’s sometimes referred to as a catchment or a drainage basin.

chemistry: The field of science that deals with the composition, structure and properties of substances and how they interact. Scientists use this knowledge to study unfamiliar substances, to reproduce large quantities of useful substances or to design and create new and useful substances. (about compounds) Chemistry also is used as a term to refer to the recipe of a compound, the way it’s produced or some of its properties. People who work in this field are known as chemists.

corona: An adjective that refers to crown, as in crown-shaped viruses known as coronaviruses. (in astronomy) The outermost layer of the atmosphere surrounding the sun (and other stars). The sun’s corona is normally visible only during a total solar eclipse, when it is seen as an irregularly shaped, pearly glow surrounding the darkened disk of the moon.

crater: A large, bowl-shaped cavity in the ground or on the surface of a planet or the moon. They are typically caused by an explosion or the impact of a meteorite or other celestial body. Such an impact is sometimes referred to as a cratering event.

eclipse: This occurs when two celestial bodies line up in space so that one totally or partially obscures the other. In a solar eclipse, the sun, moon and Earth line up in that order. The moon casts its shadow on the Earth. From Earth, it looks like the moon is blocking out the sun. In a lunar eclipse, the three bodies line up in a different order — sun, Earth, moon — and the Earth casts its shadow on the moon, turning the moon a deep red.

Grand Canyon: A natural canyon in northwest Arizona that formed as the Colorado River cut through the rock here over the past 5 million to 6 million years. This is one of many canyons on the river, which drains water from seven states. The Grand Canyon is 446 kilometers (277 miles) long. Its depth varies. At its deepest point, the river is 1,829 vertical meters (6,000 feet) below the upper rim. From rim to rim, the canyon’s width also varies — from about 16 kilometers (10 miles) to 29 kilometers. Of this impressive national land formation, more than a million acres (4,931 square kilometers, to be exact) was turned into a U.S. national park in 1919.

illusion: A thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.

lunar: Of or relating to Earth’s moon.

meteorite: A lump of rock or metal from space that passes through Earth’s atmosphere and collides with the ground.

NASA: Short for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Created in 1958, this U.S. agency has become a leader in space research and in stimulating public interest in space exploration. It was through NASA that the United States sent people into orbit and ultimately to the moon. It also has sent research craft to study planets and other celestial objects in our solar system.

robot: A machine that can sense its environment, process information and respond with specific actions. Some robots can act without any human input, while others are guided by a human.

solar eclipse: An event in which the moon passes between the Earth and sun and obscures the sun, at least partially. In a total solar eclipse, the moon appears to cover the entire sun, revealing on the outer layer, the corona. If you were to view an eclipse from space, you would see the moon’s shadow traveling in a line across the surface of the Earth.

terrain: The land in a particular area and whatever covers it. The term might refer to anything from a smooth, flat and dry landscape to a mountainous region covered with boulders, bogs and forest cover.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.