Four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission have captured unprecedented images of the moon's far side, marking humanity's return to lunar vicinity after more than five decades. The crew traveled 406,700 kilometers from Earth on April 6, setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have ventured from our planet.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen alternated shifts at the Orion capsule's windows during their seven-hour lunar flyby. The earthshine reflecting off our planet proved so bright that crew members covered one window with a spare shirt to manage the glare.
The mission revealed terrain never before witnessed by human eyes, including the complete Orientale Basin — a massive crater nearly 1,000 kilometers wide that straddles the boundary between the moon's near and far sides. The dark center of this ancient impact site contains dried lava from eruptions that occurred billions of years ago.
There is just so much magic in the terminator – the islands of light, the valleys that look like black holes [where] you'd fall straight to the centre of the moon if you stepped in some of those. It's just so visually captivating
Victor Glover, Mission Specialist — New Scientist
During their passage behind the moon, the astronauts experienced a planned 40-minute communication blackout with Earth. This isolation allowed them to witness a unique solar eclipse lasting nearly an hour, where the sun disappeared entirely behind the lunar surface while earthshine continued illuminating the moon's Earth-facing side.