The Artemis II crew just delivered the kind of moon image that makes even seasoned space watchers stop and stare.
NASA on Monday shared a striking new photo taken from the Orion spacecraft, showing both the near side and the far side of the moon in one frame. It was not just another pretty space shot. According to NASA, the four astronauts aboard Artemis II are the first humans in history to view the moon’s far side directly with the naked eye, a moment that turned a routine mission update into something much bigger.
‘Make new friends, but keep the old,’ NASA wrote in a post on X unveiling the image.
Historic Significance of the Artemis II Moon Photo
The crew of Artemis II, made up of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, entered Day 5 of their 10-day lunar flyby mission on Monday. The mission has already marked a major step for NASA’s Artemis program, but this latest image gave the public a dramatic look at what the astronauts themselves are now seeing from deep space.
NASA explained the image in simple terms. ‘A new photo captures the Moon’s near side on the right, the side we see from Earth, identifiable by its dark splotches, and its far side on the left,’ the agency said. ‘The Artemis II crew are the first to see the far side with human eyes.’
For decades, people have seen images of the moon’s far side from probes and spacecraft. Seeing it with human eyes is a different category of event, and NASA clearly knows it. In a separate update, the agency added, ‘Morning routine: Wake up, shave, make the bed, witness something that’s never before been seen by human eyes.’ It was a light line, but it underlined the scale of the moment.
Artemis II Crew Says Looking Out the Window Feels Like Pure Wonder
By Monday morning, the crew had woken up about 18,830 miles away from the moon, with Orion expected to come within roughly 4,070 miles at its closest approach. The astronauts are also on track to set a new record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth, passing the 248,655-mile mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Commander Reid Wiseman made it clear that the historic nature of the mission has not dulled the simple thrill of it.
‘The four of us have looked at the moon our entire lives, and the way we are responding to what we’re seeing out the window is just like we’re a bunch of kids up here,’ Wiseman told mission control. ‘We cannot get enough of this. It’s amazing.’
That may be the most striking part of the whole update. Behind the numbers, the flight plans, and the record-setting distance, there are still four people staring out a window in disbelief at something no human has ever seen this way before.
