The White House published on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 several images of the Earth and the solar eclipse that were taken by the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission during this Monday’s flyby of the Moon, which marked the return of humans to lunar orbit after more than half a century.
“Humanity, from the other side. First photo from the hidden side of the Moon. Captured from Orion while the Earth hides behind the lunar horizon,” stated the White House on the social network
The second image shows a total solar eclipse, which lasted about 53 minutes and was invisible from Earth. In it, the Moon completely covers the Sun from the perspective of the Orion capsule, and only the solar corona is visible.
The astronauts took both photographs during the flyby they carried out on Monday around the Moon, and with the help of 32 cameras that were distributed between the interior and exterior of the ship.
This step meant the return of human beings to lunar orbit for the first time since 1972, when Apollo 17 left the Moon.
Artemis II also made history by transporting a woman, an African-American and a Canadian into the orbit of the Earth’s satellite for the first time.
In addition to the mission commander, American astronaut Reid Wiseman, the rest of the members of Artemis II are NASA specialists Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
During the flyby, which lasted about seven hours, the four astronauts studied the lunar surface by capturing photographs and observing first-person through the capsule windows.
To do this, NASA had established thirty observation objectives and the crew described in detail everything they saw to the control center in Houston (Texas).
The mission is already on its way to Earth, where it is scheduled to land on Friday in the Pacific Ocean.
