NASA has released the first official images captured by the Artemis II crew during the mission’s flyby of the Moon, including a view of the Moon backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse.
The agency said the images were taken on April 6 during a seven-hour pass over the lunar far side by the crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. NASA said the crew used multiple cameras to take thousands of photographs, with additional images expected to be released in coming days.
One of the released images shows the Moon during an eclipse, with Orion visible in the foreground. NASA’s caption notes Earth reflecting sunlight at the Moon’s left edge, and identifies Saturn and Mars as bright points near the Moon in the frame.
NASA said the flyby imagery includes views of impact craters, ancient lava flows and surface fractures that researchers will use to study lunar geologic evolution. The agency said the crew also observed earthset and earthrise, captured views of the Sun’s corona during the eclipse, and reported six meteoroid impact flashes on the Moon’s night side.
Scientists are analysing downlinked images, audio and other data to refine the timing and locations of the reported events and compare them with observations from amateur astronomers, NASA said.
“Our four Artemis II astronauts — Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy — took humanity on an incredible journey around the Moon and brought back images so exquisite and brimming with science, they will inspire generations to come,” said Dr Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.
Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, said the higher-resolution imagery now arriving is helping ground teams align what they heard from the crew with what mission controllers could initially see during the flyby. “Now that higher resolution images are coming down, we can finally experience the moments they were trying to share and truly appreciate the scientific return provided by these images and our other research on this mission,” he said.
NASA said official imagery is available through its online platforms, including the Artemis Image Gallery and NASA’s Images and Video Library, and reminded media to follow the agency’s image usage guidelines.
The agency said it is targeting 8:07 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 10, for the return of Artemis II off the coast of San Diego, with NASA+ live coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT. NASA said recovery personnel will assist the crew out of Orion and transport them to the USS John P. Murtha.
