Artemis Crew Names Crater After Commander's Late Wife

Moon maps are getting two new labels—both chosen by the astronauts who are flying around it. As the lunary flyby began on Monday, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed Mission Control to say the Artemis II crew wants an unnamed crater between the Orientale basin and the Ohm impact crater to bear the name Integrity, after their their Orion capsule. NASA confirmed the designation for the feature on the moon's far side. Hansen then turned to a more personal tribute, proposing a second feature be named Carroll, for mission commander Reid Wiseman's wife, who died of cancer in 2020, NBC News reports.

Hansen choked up as he described the feature as a "bright spot on the moon." "There's a feature in a really neat place on the moon, and it is on the near side-far side boundary," he said. "In fact, it's just on the near side of that boundary, and so at certain times of the moon transits around Earth, we will be able to see this from Earth." The AP reports that Wiseman wept as Hansen put in the request and all four astronauts embraced as Mission Control confirmed the designation.

"After this mission is complete, the crater name proposals will be formally submitted to the International Astronomical Union, the organization that governs the naming of celestial bodies and their surface features," NASA said. After Wiseman resumed taking pictures, he said, "Such a majestic view." The flyby is scheduled to continue until 9:20pm Eastern. The crew, who have already traveled farther from our planet than any other humans in history, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970, will reach their maximum distance from Earth at 7:05pm. NASA's livestream is here.