Just days after NASA launched astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, the Artemis II crew has started sending striking images from aboard Orion — everything from candid cabin shots to dramatic views of Earth.
Commander Reid Wiseman captured several of the most impressive frames. One photograph shows Earth almost eclipsing the Sun, with zodiacal light forming a faint triangular glow from sunlight scattering off interplanetary dust. In that same image, northern and southern auroras are visible near the planet’s edges. Other shots from Wiseman highlight Earth’s terminator line, the dusk–dawn boundary that slices the globe into day and night, and a backlit silhouette of Earth taken from one of Orion’s four windows.
The mission’s four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover — have also shared behind-the-scenes moments inside the cabin and participated in the mission’s first downlink event, answering reporters’ questions from deep space.
These images were taken after Orion completed its translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026, a key maneuver that sent the spacecraft on its roughly 10-day loop around the Moon and back to Earth. NASA says the crew is coordinating with mission scientists to prioritize what to photograph as they approach and begin to orbit the Moon, according to Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
Photographs from Artemis II offer both scientific value and powerful public engagement — views that document the mission while giving people on Earth a personal window into the journey. If you haven’t seen them yet, the new photos provide a vivid reminder of the mission’s human side and the planetary perspective astronauts carry home.