Artemis II: 8. Final approach
13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II
BBC
9.5 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Now thoroughly within the lunar gravitational sphere of influence, Artemis II’s crew perform final preparations for the flyby and nearest approach. Very shortly they will break the human distance record from earth.
But listeners ask, why will they go further than Apollo 13 went? Space scientist Maggie Aderin and astronaut Tim Peake are joined by expert guest space journalist Kristin Fisher to explore.
The astronauts will shortly be the only people to see a unique solar eclipse, survey parts of the lunar far side never gazed upon with human eyes, and enter a communication blackout for around 45 minutes.
Astronaut psychology is one of the most important areas of space science. Before working on Nasa's Twins study, Dr Mathias Basner developed a test for astronaut cognition testing. Why? Because astronauts are such over-performers that with ordinary tests, their results would barely register. So… how did Tim score when he had to do them?
But tonight, all eyes are on the moon.
Season 4 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
You can get in touch with the 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II team by emailing 13minutes@bbc.co.uk.
13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II is a BBC Audio Science production for the BBC World Service.
Producers: Alex Mansfield and Sophie Ormiston Series editor: Martin Smith
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
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| 0:13.5 | But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants? |
| 0:17.2 | They often say, look, we built the nation. |
| 0:19.2 | And without us, South Korea as it exists today, |
| 0:22.6 | would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family |
| 0:28.3 | and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.6 | Welcome to 13 Minutes Presents Artemis 2 from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:41.0 | I'm astronaut Timpeak and this is episode 8 approaching flight day 6. |
| 0:46.4 | And I'm space scientist Maggi Adairn. |
| 0:48.7 | We're following the progress of the first crude mission around the moon in more than 50 years |
| 0:53.9 | with a new episode every day. |
| 1:04.1 | Hello, Reed, Victor, Christina and Jeremy. |
| 1:09.2 | This is Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke. John Young and I landed on the moon in |
| 1:15.3 | 1972 in the lunar module we named Orion. I'm glad to see a different kind of Orion helping |
| 1:23.1 | return humans to the moon as America charts the course to the lunar surface. |
| 1:29.5 | Below you on the moon is a photo of my family. I pray it reminds you that we in America and |
| 1:36.1 | all of the world are cheering you on. Thanks to you and the whole team on the ground for building |
| 1:42.7 | on our Apollo legacy with Artemis. Godspeed and |
| 1:48.0 | safe travels home. That was an incredibly special message there from Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke |
| 1:56.1 | to the crew of Artemis too, which we'll talk about in a minute. But first, as ever, we're joined by |
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