Amazing Views From Artemis 2’s Historic Lunar Flyby

By: David Dickinson April 7, 2026 8

The Artemis 2 crew set records and provided amazing views — with more to come — as they journeyed around the Moon.

Christina Koch looking out the capsule window — Astronaut Cristina Koch looks Earthward from aboard Artemis 2 as it flies toward the Moon.
*NASA*

It’s been a while since humans have witnessed in person the celestial scenes from deep space. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen have given us some awesome views from their enviable vantage point over the past week, as part of the Artemis 2 mission to the Moon aboard the Orion module, named Integrity by her crew.

First Days

Launched on April 1st, the mission features the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and NASA’s Orion crew capsule. The crew spent the first days in Earth orbit, putting the spacecraft through its paces and performing several approach tests using the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target.

Catching sight of the Artemis 2 mission in orbit was tough for ground-based observers, but not impossible. Filipp Romanov managed to spot the mission using remote telescopes based in Australia.

Wiseman captured this "Hello World" image of our planet on April 2nd, following Artemis 2's translunar injection burn. Note two aurorae (green arcs visible at top right and bottom left) and the zodiacal light (white light visible bottom right). The continent of Africa, up to the Strait of Gibraltar, is visible in the frame.
*NASA / Reid Wiseman*

Artemis 2: On Approach to the Moon

Then, it was off to the Moon. The mission performed a perigee raising maneuver and translunar injection burn on the mission's Day 2, sending the spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it past the Moon on a free-return trajectory reminiscent of the Apollo 13 rescue maneuver. As they were on their way outbound, the crew snapped an iconic image of a crescent Earth:

Crescent Earth — Sunlight illuminates a crescent of Earth, as seen on Day 3 of the mission
*NASA*

Day 5 view of the Moon through the spacecraft window — Before going to sleep on Day 5, the Artemis II crew snapped one more photo of the Moon, as it drew close in the window of *Integrity*.
*NASA*

Artemis 2's Lunar Flyby

Finally, on Day 6 of the mission, the crew began their seven-hours-long flyby around the Moon.

The Moon, with Orientale Basin in the middle, nearside above it and farside below. — This view shows the Moon as few have seen it — the lunar nearside is to the top of the image, while the farside, the side that's out of sight from Earth, is toward the bottom. Between the nearside and farside is the 600-mile-wide Orientale Basin, which can sometimes be glimpsed from Earth if the Moon wobbles the right way.
*NASA*

As the NASA broadcast began, Hansen spoke to mission control, noting a bright crater on the boundary between the Moon's nearside and farside. Parts of that boundary, including the unnamed crater, can sometimes be seen from Earth as the Moon wobbles in its tidally locked orbit. In an emotional message, Hansen requested permission from ground control to name the crater for his crewmate's late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who passed away in 2020. The astronauts as well as mission controllers on Earth took a moment of silence after this message.

Carroll Crater is to the northwest of Glushko, at the same latitude as Ohm Crater, the crew noted. The crew also requested another unnamed crater — almost directly between Orientale to Ohm — be named for the capsule, Integrity. NASA hasn't yet confirmed either crater's location. Both names are unofficial for now and will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for approval.

As expected, the mission set a record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth: Artemis 2 reached an apogee of 406,771 kilometers (252,756 miles) away, 6,616 kilometers farther than the previous record held by Apollo 13 in 1970. The record was set on Day 6, Monday April 5th at 7:02 p.m. EDT. Just prior to that, Artemis 2 made its closest approach to the Moon, taking the crew just 6,545 km from the lunar surface. At its most distant point, the mission was traveling at 60,863 miles per hour relative to Earth, and 3,139 mph relative to the Moon.

Shadowed Vavilov Crater on the lunar farside — A close-up view taken by the Artemis II crew of Vavilov Crater on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin. The right portion of the image shows the transition from smooth material within an inner ring of mountains to more rugged terrain around the rim. Vavilov and other craters and their ejecta are accentuated by long shadows at the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night. The image was captured with a handheld camera at a focal length of 400 mm, as the crew flew around the far side of the Moon.
*NASA*

The crew dimmed the cabin lights during the flyby to aid their official sight-seeing as they passed over the lunar farside. They watched craters pass by both visually and with cameras angled just so to minimize reflections from the windows. Most of those images have not yet been released, but those that have been are available in NASA's gallery.

The team also made observations of future Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission landing sites, including the enigmatic Reiner Gamma lunar swirl. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander is set to head there on its IM-3 mission later this year.

Along with views of the lunar farside, Day 6 also saw the mission pass behind the Moon as seen from Earth — cutting off radio contact for 40 minutes.

Earthset — As the Artemis II crew came close to passing behind the Moon and experiencing a planned loss of signal, they captured this image of a crescent Earth setting on the Moon’s limb. Australia and Oceania are visible on the daylit side of Earth, and Ohm Crater is visible in the foreground on the Moon.
*NASA*

The solar-powered mission then went on to witness a solar eclipse, experiencing totality for a full 50 minutes.

Eclipse selfie — Safety first: The Artemis 2 donned eclipse glasses while viewing the partial phases of the solar eclipse, donned prior to after viewing 54 minutes of totality. (For totality itself, no glasses are required.)
*NASA*

“As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still going to feel your love from Earth,” said astronaut Victor Glover (Artemis 2 pilot) in a recent update. “And to all of you down there on Earth, we love you, from the Moon. We will see you on the other side.”

Solar corona from Artemis 2 — Part of the Moon visible in the frame as it fully obscures the Sun. Although the full lunar disk extends beyond the image, the Sun’s faint corona remains visible as a soft halo of light around the Moon’s edge. From this deep-space vantage point, the Moon appeared large enough to sustain nearly 54 minutes of totality, far longer than total solar eclipses typically seen from Earth. Subtle structure is visible in the solar corona, as is Mare Crisium, the round, dark gray feature visible along the Moon’s horizon between the 9 and 10 o’clock positions.
*NASA*

From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth.
*NASA*

During the eclipse, the crew noted meteoroid flashes on the nighttime side of the Moon and watched as the pearly glow of the elusive solar corona peeked out around the lunar limb. (Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander witnessed a similar scene as a solar eclipse crossed its landing site in 2025.)

The crew also watched for a phenomenon known as lunar horizon glow, documented by the early Surveyor missions and witnessed by the crews of Apollo 15 and 17. The effect is thought to be due to sunlight filtering through small, charged dust particles elevated from the lunar surface by electrostatic fields.

What’s Next For Artemis 2

Now, Integrity and its crew are on their way home. They'll arrive back on Friday, April 10th, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast from San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 PDT). The USS John P. Murtha, a Navy ship, is onhand for recovery.

Next up in the Artemis program will be Artemis 3, which will launch in 2027 but stay in low-Earth orbit to test one or both landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. If all goes according to plan, a landing on the Moon could happen with Artemis 4 as soon as 2028.

It’s great to see NASA back in the business of human exploration in deep space as the crew of Integrity returns to Earth.

About David Dickinson

David Dickinson is a freelance science writer, high school science teacher, retired enlisted U.S. Air Force veteran and avid stargazer. He currently resides with his wife Myscha in Bristol, Tennessee. David also writes science fiction in his spare time. He posts as @AstroDave on BlueSky about space news and sky-watching worldwide.

Comments

Rod

April 8, 2026 at 7:35 am

Thanks for this report and excellent images. Some others I observed during the mission out and around, less than great, very good here S&T 🙂