We have normalized video calling so much that we hardly think about what is happening behind us when we press a button and another person appears on the screen. We do it daily, p WhatsApp, FaceTime or any other platformwithout stopping at the network, servers and connections that support this real-time conversation. It is a technology that we take for granted, even if we use it thousands of kilometers from the Earth itself. But as soon as we leave this environment and go much further, for hundreds of thousands of kilometers, what seemed everyday begins to take on another dimension.
“Hello” from space. The change of setting we’ve been talking about has a very specific example in Artemis II. The mission launched on April 2, 2026, and returned astronauts to the Moon after more than 50 years without manned flights in the area. In the middle of this journey, an important milestone occurred that we have not seen on such a scale until now: video calls from deep space through a platform called VSee.
Wiseman’s message. Beyond the technical milestone, there’s a scene that sums it all up. Reid Wiseman, the mission commander, posted a message on X mid-flight that lets us know what this communication really means. “Distance makes the heart grow fonder… it didn’t take 219,669 miles to remind me how much I love Ellie and Katie,” he wrote, referring to his daughters. Ellie and Katie are his two daughters, and the message carries special weight because Wiseman was widowed in 2020 when his wife, Carol, died. The number is also not small: at that moment the ship was at a distance of about 219,669 miles from Earth, about 353,500 kilometers.
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Before Artemis. While what we’re seeing now represents an obvious leap forward, the truth is that video calling in space is nothing new. Astronauts on the International Space Station have used video communication systems for years, both to communicate with their families and to collaborate with teams back on Earth. Already in 2010, video sharing was carried out for educational purposes, and by 2015 this practice is described as common in the work of stations. That is, the novelty is not in a video call outside the borders of the Earth, but in doing it at this distance.
The difference. The International Space Station is in a low-Earth orbit several hundred kilometers high, and the Artemis II Orion capsule has reached hundreds of thousands of kilometers from Earth during its orbit around the Moon. In addition, it reached distances that exceed the historical records of manned missions, including the maximum so far attributed to Apollo 13. For this reason, all indications are that the video call made at this moment is the farthest ever made by humans.
Why telemedicine. This is where one of the most striking questions arises. If we’re talking about a video call, why not use normal tools like the ones we use every day? The answer has more to do with the terms of communication than with the function itself. Solutions like VSee’s have been designed to work in networks with high latency, data loss, and unstable connections, exactly the kind of environment that NASA has already faced for years in its space communications. More than a matter of brand or order, the key is the robustness of the system.
The network that makes it possible. A good app is not enough to keep this conversation going. Behind it is a global infrastructure designed specifically for deep space: NASA’s Deep Space Network. This system is supported by three large stations located at strategic points on the planet, in Goldstone (USA), Madrid (Spain) and Canberra (Australia), which work in coordination, maintaining continuous contact as the Earth rotates. In the case of Spain, the Madrid station is part of the network that makes this type of connection possible, which is especially relevant to understand that these connections also depend on infrastructure located in Europe.
Images | POT
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