Broadband from the Moon: How Artemis II Pushes NASA Beyond Apollo’s Radio Frequencies

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2026 – When Apollo 17 astronauts spoke to Mission Control from the lunar surface in December 1972, their voices traveled on S-band radio waves at roughly 2.3 GigaHertz (GHz) — a frequency family NASA had chosen for its ability to punch through the atmosphere and deliver voice, telemetry, television and ranging data in a single unified link.

More than 53 years later, the four Artemis II astronauts now circling the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft are still using those same airwaves in the radio-frequency spectrum.

The moon is now filling the astronauts’ windows as on Monday they kicked off their lunar flyby, taking and communicating with mission control their views of the far side never before witnessed.

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