Have a look at the tracker at https://issinfo.net/artemis.html

They're already at a point where they see the moon from a different angle than we see it from Earth, enough to see a bit of the side that we can't see from here.

Imagine you're holding a ball with drawings on it. Hold it out at arms length and fix how it looks in your memory. Now bring it close to your face and move your head a tiny bit to the side. You're not seeing the whole back-side of the ball. Far from it! However, you are seeing some bits you weren't seeing before and the whole picture you can see now looks different than it did when the ball was at arm's length.

That's my guess. They're seeing parts of the dark-side of the moon because they're now close enough that they have a different viewing angle than we do on Earth. Remember, they're not flying straight at the moon. That's not how transfer orbits work.

I was also very confused, but after some reading I figured it out.

> In an interview with NBC News from space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch described seeing the moon out the window of the Orion capsule and realizing that it looked different from what she was accustomed to on Earth.

> “The darker parts just aren’t quite in the right place,” she said. “And something about you senses that is not the moon that I’m used to seeing.”

They are not on the other side of the moon seeing the full dark side, but from their position they're seeing the moon at a slight angle, meaning that SOME of what they now see is "the dark side", or the part we can never see from earth since the same side always faces us

>they haven’t adjusted course to go round the far side of the moon yet

They did, 3 days ago! Maybe this is being pedantic (?) but the trans-lunar injection burn they did on April 2 put them on the complete trajectory including return to Earth. Though there are still possible correction burns that can be done to increase precision (the first 2 of these were already canceled).

They've actually already on course to go around the moon for a couple days! There's been the option of performing some some minor course corrections to make sure they look back around to the right Earth orbit, but I think those haven't actually been necessary

Source: NASA's YT channel + way too many hours playing KSP. Skipping the course correction burn yesterday gave them the opportunity to try and unclog the liquid waste valve

Remember that they’re not flying towards the Moon but to a point in space where they and the Moon will be closest together in a day or two, hence the Moon is now ‘off to their side’ and they can see a segment of it that is hidden to Earth observers … I think.

Also, the dark side of the Moon is often illuminated but we call it dark because it’s also hidden from earth due to the Earth and Moon being tidally locked (the same side of each always faces the other body).

They’re far enough out that they can see some stuff you don’t see from Earth. They aren’t seeing the entire far side yet.

Illustrated: https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/1sd797j/the_moon...

  O                                                          .   .    o
  Earth                            >   .    .     .     .             Moon
                                   Orion                              in 3 days
                                                                    .
                                                                  .
                                                               .
                                                            .
                                                         .
                                                       .
                                                     o
                                                     Moon
                                                     now

I think they're saying they can see a sliver of the far side, and that seeing the moon from a slightly different angle is weird having seen the near side so often. But they didn't really make that clear.

“First glimpse of the dark side of the moon” rather than “the whole dark side of the moon”. Title is pretty accurate for my understanding.

I think they could not communicate if they were really on the far side of the moon.

So I guess they see it differently than us, eg from the side but not from the back.

They did that change a long time ago. They are on a course to go around the Moon from the TLI burn (trans lunar injection) Thursday at 7:49pm EDT. They don’t need any more burns for that.

> they haven’t adjusted course to go round the far side of the moon yet

No course adjustment is necessary (at least in the sense of an engine burn). The moon's gravity will sling them around and back toward Earth.