See the first incredible photos of the Moon, Earth and a total solar eclipse from NASA's Artemis II mission

The first images from NASA Artemis II The mission’s lunar flyby was worth the wait

By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron

On the left, the gray and cratered surface of the Moon. On the right, a crescent of Earth. — NASA

NASA launched four astronauts on a pioneering journey around the Moon: the Artemis II assignment. Follow our coverage here.

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You’ve never seen the moon like this before.

Monday, NASA Artemis II The mission flew by the Moon, marking the first time humans have seen several parts of its surface up close. And on Tuesday, NASA began sharing the incredible photographs taken by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen during that flyby – and they were worth the wait.

The first to fall was a superb Image “Earth”a nod to the iconic “Earthrise” photograph taken by the crew of the Apollo 8 as they circled the Moon for the first time in human history in 1968.

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A crescent moon appearing above the moon's vast crater surface. — NASA

Then there was a sight that no human had ever seen before: the spectacle of a total solar eclipse just a few thousand kilometers from the surface of the moon. The event left the astronauts stunned. “It’s just, it’s indescribable. No matter how long we look at this, our brains don’t process this image in front of us,” Wiseman said at the time. “It’s absolutely spectacular, surreal. There are no adjectives. I’m going to have to invent new ones to describe what we’re looking at through this window.” Now the rest of us are getting our first taste of what that moment was like.

The white crown of the sun shines around the moon, which is almost entirely in shadow. The stars shine around the moon. — NASA

And then, of course, there was the moon itself in all its cratered glory. The astronauts were particularly fascinated by the moon’s terminator – the line where light and dark meet – and how it makes the lunar topography appear to come to life. “The terminator really brings out the shadows and the hills and valleys, and it’s just incredible,” Hansen said during the flyby.

A view of the Moon's surface in striking detail, full of craters. — NASA

The crew spoke to Artemis II science officer Kelsey Young during the entire flyby, except for a 40-minute period when the spacecraft was behind the moon and out of radio signal range. Young and his team had created a detailed guide to the lunar features the astronauts should focus on. One of them was Orientale Basin, the large, multi-ringed crater in the center of the image below.

A close-up of the Moon, visualizing some of its craters. — NASA

And even though the crew had traveled 406,771 kilometers from their earthly home, they couldn’t look away. They clearly enjoyed seeing Earth’s bright crescent and how it seemed so small from their perspective as they traveled around the Moon.

The crew also captured an “Earthrise” moment corresponding to Earth’s sunset, with our planet’s crescent bitten by the gentle curve of the moon.

Photo of Artemis II Earthrise, with the crescent Earth seen just below the dark limb of the Moon. — NASA

NASA’s Johnson Space Center posts images of the flyby on its Flickr accountand we will continue to share them as they become available.

Editor’s Note (4/7/26): This is a developing news article that will be updated.

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