Artemis II Flies Around the Moon for All
On April 6th, 2026, humans visited the Moon for the first time in 54 years. Artemis II has completed its lunar flyby, achieving the literal and figurative apex of the mission as four people beheld parts of the surface never seen with human eyes. For many people on Earth, this is the first time humanity has visited the Moon in their lifetime, and the day was rich with emotional moments for the crew, even as they worked hard to record groundbreaking scientific observations.
Artemis II’s flyby of the Moon has proven to be the emotional highlight of the mission to date. The crew of Integrity were greeted Monday morning by a message from Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, recorded before his passing last year. Lovell welcomed the astronauts to what he described as “my old neighborhood,” offering them his advice for the day: “I know how busy you’ll be. But don’t forget to enjoy the view.”
Shortly before their observations began, the crew also paused to formally propose names for two recent craters on the Moon: the first, Integrity, after their Orion spacecraft, and the second, Carroll, after Reid Wiseman’s late wife, who passed away due to cancer in 2020. Far above the Moon, the four astronauts held one another for a long moment.
As their work began, the crew’s training was on full display each moment of the nearly 7-hour flyby. Astronauts Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen have spent the past three years training diligently for this day, learning about lunar geology from the foremost experts in the world, memorizing lunar features, and rehearsing every photograph. The crew were paired into teams: Wiseman with Hansen, and Koch with Glover. They rotated through five alternating shifts, one team making observations through Integrity’s windows while the other provided support and communicated with Mission Control in Houston.
The NASA science team has repeatedly emphasized the irreplaceable value of human eyes and minds compared to robotic probes and cameras. The astronauts engaged in active discussions with experts including Dr. Kelsey Young, describing nuances in colors, brightness, shadows, and topography details, asking questions of the science team, and synthesizing their knowledge in real time.
All the while, history’s newest lunar explorers were frequently struck by the reality of their position, compelled by the sight of the Moon below them. Koch reported “an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the moon […] something just drew me into the lunar landscape, and it became real.” In a similar moment, Glover shared, “it was hard to speak. Looking through the zoom […] I was walking around down there on the surface, climbing and off-roading on amazing terrain.” Family members, including Glover’s wife and daughter and Wiseman’s children, were present in Mission Control to provide their support.
As the Moon set behind the Earth, the crew photographed a spectacular “Earthset” view, paralleling the famous “Earthrise” seen by Apollo 8 in 1968. Just before the Moon interrupted communications with Earth, Glover expressed the crew’s sense of love, quoting Jesus’ instruction to “love your neighbor as yourself.” He concluded, “to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the Moon.” Just over 40 minutes later, as the Earth emerged from the shadow of the Moon, Christina echoed her comments during trans-lunar injection: “We will always choose Earth; we will always choose each other.”
Finally, the crew witnessed a dramatic eclipse of the Sun by the Moon, making their last major observations of the flyby. They observed sunlight illuminating dust suspended over the lunar horizon, a “sunset” previously seen only by Apollo crews and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander. In the shadow of the Moon, they saw other planets, dust orbiting the Sun, faint stars, the solar corona, and the faint light of the Earth on the lunar surface.
Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen have now traveled further from the Earth than anyone in history, breaking the record set by the crew of Apollo 13 in 1970. The busiest part of their mission, the Moon itself, is now behind them. Though their work continues, unpacking their observations and maintaining Integrity’s systems, the mission will soon draw to a close. The final test of Artemis II will take place on Friday, April 10th: the spacecraft’s reentry and splashdown.
Space Scout will continue its coverage of Artemis II as the mission progresses.
