Even at 300,000 km per second, light still needs about 1.3 seconds to cross the average Earth–Moon gap. A radio command to a lunar lander carries the same delay each way.
That lag is tiny next to Mars minutes or Voyager hours, yet it already forces mission controllers to plan ahead. Live conversation with the Moon is possible — just not truly instant.
The delay is a tape measure in time. Knowing the lag means knowing the distance, which is why laser ranging can track the Moon centimeter by centimeter.
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