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

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 …