Newly-released NASA Artemis II Crew Photos with Planet Earth

Newly-released NASA Artemis II Crew Photos with Planet Earth

NASA astronaut Christina Koch pictured inside the Orion spacecraft with the crescent Earth pictured through the window behind her. This picture was captured after the Artemis II crew completed their lunar flyby and were on their way back to Earth. 

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman smiles aboard the Orion spacecraft with a crescent Earth visible through the window behind him on the eighth day of the Artemis II mission.

NASA astronaut Victor Glover pictured inside the Orion spacecraft with the crescent Earth pictured through the window behind him. This picture was captured after the Artemis II crew completed their lunar flyby and were on their way back to Earth. 

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen pictured inside the Orion spacecraft with the crescent Earth pictured through the window behind him. This picture was captured after the Artemis II crew completed their lunar flyby and were on their way back to Earth.

During the Artemis II crew’s journey back home to Earth, NASA’s Orion spacecraft appears alongside a sliver of Earth, both illuminated against the blackness of space. Pictured from one of the cameras mounted on Orion’s solar array wings, this image shows the orbital maneuvering system engine, five of eight auxiliary thrusters, and a pod of four reaction control system thrusters on the spacecraft’s service module.

View of Earth out of the Orion spacecraft’s side hatch window taken by a member of the Artemis II crew at the end of Flight Day 5, the night before lunar flyby.

Earth captured from the Artemis II crew showing white swirling clouds above the blue Pacific Ocean, with reflected sunlight visible in the upper right and the lower left obscured in darkness behind the terminator. This image was captured a few hours before the crew returned to Earth.

This black and white image of Earth was captured by the optical navigation sensor on the exterior of the Orion spacecraft on the first day of the Artemis II mission, as the four astronauts inside were traveling farther than any humans have ventured in more than 50 years.

NASA's Artemis II Mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth.

The Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down on Friday, April 10, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean following its journey around the Moon.

The first crewed test flight of NASA’s Artemis Program lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026, carrying the first astronauts to travel to the Moon in more than half a century. 

The crew completed a record-setting lunar flyby, taking them 252,756 miles at their farthest distance from Earth and 4,067 miles above the lunar surface at their closest approach. 

Under Artemis, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Learn more about NASA's Artemis II Mission:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Credit: NASA
Image Dates: April 3-10, 2026

Release Date: June 26, 2026

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