Happy Independence Day! | NASA

Happy Independence Day! | NASA

Just after sunrise, the waning gibbous moon sets just behind a waving United States flag on March 19, 2025, in this image from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The waning gibbous moon phase comes after the full moon. As the Moon begins its journey back toward the Sun, the opposite side of the Moon now reflects the Moon’s light. The lighted side appears to shrink, but the Moon’s orbit is simply carrying it out of view from our perspective. The Moon also rises later and later each night.

In this Apollo 17 photo, Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan adjusts the U.S. flag deployed upon the Moon on December 12, 1972. The seventh and last manned lunar landing and return to Earth mission, Apollo 17, carried a crew of three astronauts: Cernan; Lunar Module pilot Harrison H. Schmitt; and Command Module pilot Ronald E. Evans, lifted off on December 7, 1972 from the Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC). 

NASA Artemis Program emblem

Happy Independence Day from NASA!

"We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars."

Learn more about NASA's Artemis Program:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/artemis/

Image Credits: NASA/Michael DeMocker/JSC
Release Date: May 23, 2025

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