On April 6, NASA’s Artemis II crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen—passed within 4,000 mi (6,400 km) of the Moon’s far side, the nearest human approach since Apollo 17. During the seven‑hour flyby, astronauts will stream footage from four SAW cameras mounted on Orion’s solar‑array wings, but the feed will remain low‑resolution for the first time in over fifty years.

The limitation stems from the Deep Space Network’s bandwidth constraints and the vast distance to the Moon. Unlike the ISS, which sits in low Earth orbit and connects to the Tracking and Data Relay System, Artemis II must rely on ground stations in California, Spain and Australia, forcing a low‑rate video stream over the next few hours.

To overcome this hurdle, NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a contract to launch a constellation of lunar relay satellites. These orbiters will bridge the gap between the capsule and Earth, allowing future missions to send high‑resolution video from the lunar surface without needing a direct line of sight to a ground station and improve data rates for scientific instruments.

These relays will also support Mars rovers and other deep‑space probes, expanding NASA’s communications network. Once operational, the constellation will provide continuous, high‑rate coverage for the first Artemis landing, ensuring the public receives the same vivid imagery that has defined space exploration for decades and maintain reliable telemetry throughout the mission.