Drawn by the Moon, Artemis II

Opis

Orion and the Moon's far side, closer than any crew has been in over 50 years. April 6, 2026. The Orion spacecraft, lit up by the Sun, passes over the Moon during the Artemis II flyby. In the background, a waxing gibbous Moon reveals a view almost never seen from Earth. Near the center bottom sits Orientale basin, a 600-mile-wide impact crater ringed by mountains, straddling the boundary between the near and far sides. To its left: the far side, the hemisphere we never get to see from home, with patches of ancient lava still visible in the basin floor. To its right: the familiar nearside, covered in the giant dark lava flows we've been looking at for thousands of years. This is what 4,067 miles from the lunar surface looks like from inside a spacecraft built to take humans back. This image