PHOTOS from all 10 days of NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission

11 Apr 2026 07:21

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PHOTOS from all 10 days of NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission

Source: Reuters

NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon required patience. A February launch attempt became a March launch attempt. That in turn became an April launch attempt.

But NASA’s flight controllers weren’t fooling around when they went into a terminal countdown and heaved three Americans and one Canadian into space on April Fools’ Day.

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For 10 days, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have sought to make real NASA’s credo of doing near-impossible things. They have gone farther into deep space than any other people. They have seen parts of the lunar far side never viewed by human eyes. They witnessed a 53-minute solar eclipse. They even prompted President Trump to ask if he could have their autographs.

The astronauts have showed us many things during their journey: their love for one another and humanity as a whole; their awe at the outcome of their explorations; their feeling of “moon joy.”

Here is what their mission looked like from their trip to the launchpad through their journey around the moon and back. The four astronauts of the Artemis II crew, in bright orange spacesuits, wave to well-wishers gathered outside as they prepare to board a bus with a mission-themed wrap on its side. Two of the astronauts make hearts with their hands.

Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The Artemis II crew greeted well-wishers and family on the way to the launchpad. A plume of exhaust from the Artemis II rocket, out of frame, extends high into the sky as a row of people with camping chairs and cameras document the launch.

Credit...Cassandra Klos for The New York Times

Spectators at the Kennedy Space Center moments after liftoff. A bright red full moon over an American flag at dusk.

Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

A full moon rose over the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center the evening after takeoff.

While in Earth’s orbit, the crew jettisoned the spacecraft’s boosters, separated from the craft’s core stage and made other preparations for their journey to the moon. A view from below as Christina Koch looks out a window of the Orion spacecraft that frames the Earth.

Credit...NASA

Christina Koch, a mission specialist, on April 2. A view from outside the Orion spacecraft as it approaches the moon, half cast in shadow, with a tiny Earth peeking out.

Credit...NASA

Orion, the moon and Earth. The moon forms a large horizontal crescent as a much smaller crescent Earth peeks just beyond its curving edge.

Credit...NASA

Earthset, seen on the day of the flyby, Monday, April 6. A crescent Earth with the dark moon partially obscuring that crescent.

Credit...NASA

A crescent Earth, partly obscured by the moon. Reid Wiseman peers out a window of the Orion spacecraft, with a laptop open in front of him showing features of the moon.

A smiling Christina Koch, wearing a headband and floating near a window of the Orion spacecraft.

Jeremy Hansen smiles at the camera in the darkened Orion spacecraft.

Victor Glover, in glasses and wearing a headset, peers out a window of the Orion spacecraft.

A seven-hour observation period. Clockwise from top left: Mr. Wiseman, Ms. Koch, Mr. Glover and Mr. Hansen.Credit...NASA The enormous Orientale basin, with a dark spot in its center, seen on the surface of the moon.

Credit...NASA

Orientale basin, center, one of the moon’s youngest and best-preserved large impact craters. It is about 580 miles across. A large and very deep crater at the edge of the shadow of the moon’s darker edge.

Credit...NASA

Vavilov crater, on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin. A view from the Orion spacecraft of the moon, fully obscuring the bright sun during an eclipse.

Credit...NASA

The total solar eclipse.

A selfie of the four astronauts, who each wear eclipse glasses.

Credit...NASA

The crew donned their eclipse glasses.

A bright spot of sun peeking out from the behind the moon at the end of the eclispe.

Credit...NASA

The sun beginning to peek out from behind the moon as the eclipse transitions out of totality.

A scientist sitting in front of a bank of monitors smiles and clenches her fists with joy. Another scientist next to her smiles.

A scientists pumps his fist from behind a row of screens.

Back on Earth, there's "moon joy" in the Science Evaluation Room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

CreditCredit...

Mr. Hansen, the first Canadian to join a moon mission, and the crew took questions from the Canadian prime minister and others on Wednesday. A view from outside the Orion spacecraft looking down on its window, in which a smiling Ms. Koch peeks through.

Credit...NASA

Ms. Koch, seen through a window of the Orion Integrity spacecraft, in an image taken by a camera mounted on the spacecraft’s solar panel. The moon forms a large orb at left while the Earth is a tiny crescent in the black distance of space.

Credit...NASA

The moon, appearing much larger than Earth, as the Orion Integrity spacecraft begins its journey back home A view inside the Orion spacecraft showing two astronauts, not yet in spacesuits, at the controls.

Credit...NASA TV

A screenshot from a live feed with Reid Wiseman, left, and Victor Glover, as Mr. Wiseman showed a photo he had just taken of Earth with his smartphone, about five hours from splashdown. A small space capsule separates from a larger spacecraft in orbit over Earth.

Credit...NASA, via Associated Press

A screenshot from the European Space Agency’s service module, whose solar panels carried some of the cameras that provided so many of these images, as the Orion spacecraft separated on its way back to Earth. Three large parachutes extend from the capsule at the moment it splashes into the sea.

Credit...NASA

Splashdown occurred 47 seconds past 8:07 p.m., Eastern time, according to Rob Navias of NASA. Crowds raise their arms and smartphones in jubilation at a museum with aircraft on display behind them.