Back on Earth, the blackout will be a tense time for those with the job of maintaining contact with the spacecraft.
At the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, in the south-west of England, a huge antenna has been collecting signals from the Orion capsule, carefully pinpointing its position throughout its journey, and feeding this information back to Nasa HQ.
Matt Cosby, Goonhilly’s chief technology officer, told the BBC: “This is the first time we’re tracking a spacecraft with humans on it.
“We’re going to get slightly nervous as it goes behind the Moon, and then we’ll be very excited when we see it again, because we know that they’re all safe.”
But the hope is these dropouts in communications could soon become a thing of the past. And Cosby says that will be essential as Nasa – and other space agencies around the world – begin to build a Moon base and ramp up further exploration.
“For a sustainable presence on the Moon, you need the full comms – you need the full 24 hours a day, even on the far side, because the far side will want to be explored as well,” he said.
