NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin window – credit, NASA
Americans and Canadians been delighted with images of the Moon and Earth taken from onboard the Orion capsule as it took 4 astronauts into Lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo program.
Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1st, 2026, reached the Moon on the 5th, and transited the Moon’s far side on the 6th.
On Monday, the mission marked the farthest point humans have ever traveled from the surface of Earth—about the width of the Lower 48—plus a quarter-million miles—from home.
A view of the Moon from the Orion capsule – credit, NASA
On the way, the crew have kept their countrymen updated with all the sights from Lunar sphere of influence, where the gravity of our satellite affects the capsule more than does the gravity of Earth.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to visit Lunar space, was captured in a particularly striking photo gazing out a cabin window at our planet while her hair dangled in microgravity.
A view of Earth taken from the Orion spacecraft with the aurora in the Northern Hemisphere – credit, Chris Wiseman
A view of the Moon from the Artemis II mission – credit, NASA
Mission Commander Chris Wiseman captured the Earth illuminated by the Sun, with the polar aurora spreading out along the Northern Hemisphere.
A striking image of the Moon’s near side (the side we see from Earth) was taken from the capsule that shows a major crater and former lava flow, while the bottom-third of the photo captures the far side, totally pockmarked with impact sites.
Artemis II is the mission that would return humans to Lunar space to build up performance data and know-how for an eventual return to the Moon’s surface with Artemis III.
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