Having completed its mission, Artemis II is headed home.
But not before capturing — 175 gigabytes worth of — breathtaking views from the far side of the moon.
Images were released on Tuesday by NASA.
More about this process can be found here.
NASA says a handful of these images show something called Earthset, where Earth dips below the lunar horizon.
“Parts of Australia & Oceania are visible, while the dark side of Earth is experiencing nighttime,” the official NASA post reads.
Artemis II makes history
The crew made history by traveling deeper into space than any humans before.
From NASA Mission Control, President Donald Trump on Tuesday congratulated the astronauts, “today you’ve made history, circling around the Moon for the first time in more than half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth.”
Here’s the full conversation between the president and the astronauts:
The crew had another conversation up in space, this time with fellow astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
It marks the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever, as reported by The Associated Press.
Houston’s Mission Control arranged the call.
Another touching storyline
In an emotional video from onboard the spacecraft, crew members chose to name a previously unnamed crater on the moon after Cmdr. Reid Wiseman’s wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.
The crater is described as a bright spot on the moon and is said to be visible from Earth at certain times during the year.
Wiseman has two daughters.