Astronauts aboard the Artemis II mission captured an ‘unseen’ side of the moon on Sunday—marking yet another milestone amidst a historic mission. The team is expected to begin a lunar flyby tomorrow before heading back to Earth. The Artemis II crew is expected to surpass the record previously set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 for the farthest humans have ever travelled from the planet.
“History in the making. You can see Orientale basin on the right edge of the lunar disk. This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,” NASA explained in a social media caption.
The post has drawn attention not just because of the image, but Artemis II is already being considered as a landmark return to human deep-space travel. As per the latest updates by NASA, the mission has crossed the “two-thirds” mark of its journey to the moon on flight day four, with astronauts aboard Orion reviewing the plans for the upcoming lunar flyby nad practising manual control of the spacecraft. NASA said on X that “Artemis II just hit the ‘two-thirds ‘marks of the journey to the Moon.”
Why does this image matter?
The new image matters because Artemis II is the first crewed mission headed around the moon in more than 53 years, reviving a kind of human exploration not seen since the Apollo era. The four crew members-Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen—are on a lunar flyby mission rather than a landing mission.
History in the making
In this new image from our @NASAArtemis II crew, you can see Orientale basin on the right edge of the lunar disk. This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes. pic.twitter.com/iqjod6gqgz
— NASA (@NASA) April 5, 2026
Who is making history on Artemis II?
The crew itself represents several firsts. Christina Koch is the first woman to travel toward the moon, Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American to fly to the moon and Victor Glover the first Black astronaut on such a mission.
What comes next for the mission?
Artemis II is expected to swing around the moon and return to Earth without landing, before ending with a Pacific splashdown on April 10. The mission is a major test for NASA’s longer-term plan to build a sustained human presence on and around the moon, with a crewed lunar landing targeted later in the Artemis programme.