See a jaw-dropping 'Earthset'—and a rare solar eclipse from the far side of the moon

After traveling a record distance from Earth, the Artemis II crew saw incredible things. “This continues to be unreal,” pilot Victor Glover said.

Earthrise over the Moon's horizon, showcasing Earth's blue and white half emerging from the dark space above the Moon's gray, cratered surface.
Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over Australia and Oceania. In the foreground, Ohm crater on the moon has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks.
NASA
ByBrian Resnick
Published April 7, 2026

Artemis II’s historic lunar flyby on Monday was one of new milestones and spaceflight records, but it was also deeply resonant with the past. After flying farther beyond the Earth than any human has ever been before—beating the record set in 1970 during Apollo 13 by about 4,102 miles—and seeing parts of the moon no humans had ever witnessed, the crew recreated “Earthrise,” one of the most famous photographs of all time, with a small twist.

Instead of Earthrise, the Artemis II photo is of Earthset, capturing the surface of the moon and the crescent-lit Earth setting beyond it in the same frame.

In 1968, a year of global political unrest, the crew of Apollo 8 was on a similar flight around the moon, on a test of a spacecraft that would be used for future lunar landings. In an unplanned moment, crew member William “Bill” Anders snapped a photo of the Earth and the moon in the same frame. The photo, called “Earthrise,” would become iconic—inspiring the global environmental movement in the years before the establishment of Earth Day in 1970.

A person gazes out a spacecraft window at Earth, which appears vibrant blue with swirling white clouds against the dark expanse of space.
Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the moon.
NASA
A thin crescent seen against a dark background with radiant light beams coming from the left
On the third day of the mission, the crew saw an illuminated sliver of Earth set against the blackness of space out the window of the Orion spacecraft.
NASA

The Artemis II crew recreated that shot from a more distant vantage point than their predecessors. As National Geographic contributor Swapna Krishna explained, that’s because Artemis II flew around 4,000 miles above the surface of the moon, as opposed to Apollo 8 at around 60 miles high.

Then, shortly after Earthset, the Artemis II crew witnessed something extraordinary: a solar eclipse, from the vantage point of the far side of the moon. Because Artemis II launched on the night of a full moon, much of the far side of the moon was still dark by the time the crew reached it on their sixth day of the mission. In their incredible image, the moon blocks out the light of the sun, exposing the ethereal solar corona (i.e. the solar atmosphere). NASA even provided the crew with special eclipse glasses to take in the view before and after totality.

(Watch Artemis II blast off in stunning slow motion)

According to NASA, a solar eclipse so close to the moon has never been seen by human eyes before. “This continues to be unreal,” Artemis II pilot Victor Glover said as the solar corona formed a halo around the moon. “We just went sci-fi.”

Glover poetically described the color of the moon during the eclipse as “the gray that blends and drifts into the blackness,” remarking in awe that the crew could still make out features on the lunar surface with the sun completely behind it, because it was partially lit by the light of the Earth. “It’s the strangest looking thing—that you can see so much on the surface,” he said. “Humans probably have not evolved to see what we're seeing. It is truly hard to describe. It is amazing”

A solar eclipse viewed from space with the Moon obscuring the Sun, creating a glowing halo. Stars dot the dark sky
From the crew’s perspective, the moon appeared large enough to completely block the sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of eclipse totality. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. The faint glow of the nearside of the moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth.
NASA

The new image is also reminiscent of when the Apollo 12 crew observed the Earth blocking the light of the sun.

Moments to honor the past infused the entire day of the lunar flyby, the sixth of the mission. Upon waking, the crew heard a message from Jim Lovell, the astronaut who piloted Apollo 8 and commanded Apollo 13, and who recorded the missive for Artemis II before his death in August 2025. “Welcome to my old neighborhood!” Lovell said. “When Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and I orbited the moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity’s first up-close look at the moon and got a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world. I’m proud to pass that torch on to you.”

And in a particularly heartfelt moment, shortly after the crew reached the farthest point ever traveled in space, Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen communicated the crew’s desire to name a crater close to the moon’s nearside-farside boundary after Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Wiseman who died from cancer in 2020. “It’s a bright spot on the moon,” Hansen said. “We would like to call it Carroll.” And then the crew embraced.

Follow along with National Geographic’s continued coverage of Artemis II here.

View of the moon from a spacecraft window, surrounded by intricate machinery and cables.
Before going to sleep on flight day 5, the Artemis II crew snapped one more photo of the moon.
NASA
A detailed, full moon with prominent craters
The Artemis II crew became the first humans to see the moon's Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater, visible in the bottom half of this image.
NASA
A rugged, cratered lunar surface in the foreground with a crescent Earth glowing against the blackness of space
"We will visit again," mission specialist Christina Koch said as the crew began its journey home. "We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire but ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other."
NASA