science
NASA Releases Images from Artemis II Mission After Crew's Lunar Flyby
The Artemis II mission crew completed a flyby of the moon's far side, capturing images now released by NASA. The four astronauts, including three Americans and one Canadian, traveled farther from Earth than any humans since 1972. The photos provide new details of lunar features and a setting Earth during a solar eclipse.
DI
NA
DI
Substrate placeholder — needs reviewAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
NASA has released images captured by the Artemis II crew during their flyby of the moon's far side. The mission, launched on April 3, 2026, involved four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Warren Hoburg, mission specialist Christina Koch, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Post by @disclosetv on X
The crew surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, traveling approximately 400,000 kilometers from Earth.
The images show previously unseen details of the moon's far side, including craters and basins. NASA and the White House distributed the photos, which also capture a setting Earth and a solar eclipse observed from space. The astronauts used iPhones to take some photographs, though the devices could not connect to the internet.
The Orion spacecraft entered a communications blackout at 6:44 p.
m. Eastern time on April 6, 2026, as it looped around the moon's far side, the first human mission to do so since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew emerged from the blackout after approximately one hour. During the flyby, they reached a closest approach of about 7,000 kilometers from the lunar surface.
Scientists refer to the moon's backside as the far side rather than the dark side, as it receives sunlight but remains hidden from Earth. The mission tested systems for future lunar landings under NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon and prepare for Mars missions. No landing occurred during Artemis II, which served as a crewed test flight.
The astronauts named a moon crater after Carroll Wiseman, the late wife of commander Reid Wiseman, who died in 2020 from cancer.
