Earth & Moon Views: New Images Released | NASA Artemis II Mission
The Artemis II crew captures the Moons curved limb during their trip around the far side of the Moon.
A bright portion of the Moon is visible in this image. If you look closely, you can see linear, pitted features known as “crater chains” radiating from the Orientale basin, an impact crater with a patch of ancient lava at its center, visible in the bottom center of the image. These crater chains formed about 3.8 billion years ago, when rocks spewed from the collision that formed Orientale landed in lines extending away from the crater. These chains are found near other large craters on the Moon, but we do not get to see them on Earth because our planet’s crust has been turned over so many times through plate tectonics and largely erased by rain, wind, and ice.
In the upper left corner of the Moon disk is a line called the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night. Here, low-angle sunlight skims the surface, casting dramatic shadows that expose the area’s topography—or the shape of its surface. Glushko crater is the bright spot just to the left of the dark mare, or “sea” of ancient lava flows on the near side of the Moon. It is identifiable by the bright rays that shoot across the mare, hundreds of miles away. These rays are made of ejected material after the collision that formed Glushko. Glushko and its rays are brighter than the surrounding area because that younger has experienced less weathering from radiation and impacts.
Oceanus Procellarum, the largest lava-filled region on the Moon, spans the horizon. The Aristarchus crater, the bright spot in the sea of lava, creeps toward the right edge of the Moon.
The Artemis II crew captures the Moons curved limb during their journey around the far side of the Moon.
The Artemis II Mission wrapped up a historic seven-hour lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, marking humanity’s first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and capturing images of the lunar far side.
On April 1, 2026, Artemis II’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending four astronauts on an approximately 10-day test flight around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft. Enjoy views of the launch from cameras affixed to the SLS rocket.
Under Artemis, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Learn more about the mission:
NASA Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen continue preparing for their return to Earth set for Friday, April 10, 2026.
Track NASA’s Artemis II Mission in real time:
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis-ii/arow/
Check the Artemis blog for updates:
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Image Date: April 6, 2026
Image Date: April 6, 2026
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