NASA shares first Artemis II crew images ahead of mission status briefing
Published on April 3, 2026.
The crew of Artemis II, the first astronaut mission in over 50 years, has taken its first images of Earth from one of the Orion capsule's windows, showing a slice of Earth viewed from the capsule. The crew is currently 90,000 miles from Earth and has another 168,000 to go to the moon, with the goal of reaching their destination on Monday. The photos were taken by commander Reid Wiseman and another photo shows the entire plant. The mission is set to be followed by an Artemis II mission status briefing at 3:30 p.m. EST on Friday. The first lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972 will take place on Monday and will follow by Artemis III to test Orion's ability to dock with new lunar landers.
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