In a video still from NASA, the crew of Artemis II celebrates Easter Sunday by presenting Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency with golden astronaut wings. Hansen is the one member of the crew who had not been to space before. (NASA via The New York Times) — NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY A photo provided by NASA shows a view of the Vavilov Crater, center, and the older and larger Hertzsprung Basin, right, on the far side of the Moon during the Artemis II flyby on Monday evening, April 6, 2026. On the sixth day of the mission, 248,655 miles from Earth, four people — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — ventured farther from home than any human being who has ever lived. (NASA via The New York Times)
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Minutes before the astronauts of the NASA Artemis II mission headed into a radio blackout, cut off from contact with Earth for 40 minutes while swooping around the moon’s far side, all they could do was watch.
There it was: The swirly blue crescent of our planet, with all of humanity — every single one of us, you, me, everyone we know — in tow. It dipped ever lower on the horizon of a lifeless, pockmarked moon, a poignant farewell to the members of the crew as they plunged into silence.
This was Earthset, captured in a picture released by the White House and NASA Tuesday morning. It is a view that rivals the iconic Earthrise captured by the astronauts of Apollo 8 in 1968, when they conducted the very first human journey around the moon.
“We will always choose Earth,” Christina Koch, a mission specialist on Artemis II, said once the crew members regained communications. “We will always choose each other.”
As the astronauts emerged from the other side of the moon, they experienced yet another breathtaking sight: a solar eclipse, from a vantage never witnessed by any human.
The sun slipped behind the moon, revealing wispy strings of its atmosphere and creating a halo of light around the lunar rim. The view, captured in a second picture released by the White House, was augmented by a surrounding field of stars and planets, including Saturn and Venus.
Victor Glover, the Artemis II pilot, said it was difficult to capture with a camera, but the face of the moon was softly lit by the glow of Earth, enough to make out lunar hills and valleys.
“Humans probably have not evolved to see what we’re seeing,” Glover said, in awe. “It is truly hard to describe. It is amazing.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Katrina Miller/NASA
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
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