Humanity has seen similar images to the one below, beginning with the iconic Earthrise image captured by Apollo 8. But these are the highest-resolution images of the phenomenon and hint at a future with far more time spent near, and on, the Moon’s surface.

The Orion spacecraft is currently on the return leg of its epic journey, with a splashdown targeted for 00:07 UTC on Saturday 11 April 2026, if conditions allow. This will arguably be the most dangerous part of the mission as the craft undergoes a high-speed atmospheric reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

The Orion crew module containing the four Artemis II astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Friday evening.

The crew of Artemis II just captured a series of dazzling images of the Earth and moon.

The first images from Artemis II reveal what the moon looks like just 7,000 km from the surface—and confirm that NASA is ready to return to Earth’s satellite.

We’re going back to the moon?” they would ask, with the sort of mild surprise that one might experience upon being told that the Super Bowl is only a week away. They didn’t linger on the subject. Anyway,

The Artemis II crew will travel farther than any human before. Here's everything you need to know about the historic moment.

Unlike lunar missions from the Apollo era of more than 50 years ago, Artemis II astronauts benefited from instantly being able to review the digital photos they took, a far cry fr