Artemis II Crew Watches Earth Vanish Behind the Moon

For the first time since 1972, human eyes witnessed Earth vanish behind the lunar horizon, and the view left astronauts struggling to find words.

The four-person crew of NASA's Artemis II mission captured a breathtaking image of our crescent-shaped planet dipping behind the moon's rugged surface on April 6, 2026. The photo shows Australia and Oceania bathed in sunlight while the rest of Earth fades into night, framed by the stark lunar landscape 4,070 miles below.

"I'm actually getting chills right now," Commander Reid Wiseman told reporters during a live news conference from the Orion spacecraft. "You can see the atmosphere. You can see the terrain on the moon projected across the Earth, and then it was gone."

The moment marked the beginning of a 31-minute communications blackout as the spacecraft passed behind the moon. Before losing contact with Mission Control in Houston, the crew took time to absorb what they were experiencing.

"The four of us took a moment," Wiseman said. "We shared maple cookies that Jeremy had brought."

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen joined NASA astronauts Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch for the historic flight. Together, they spent three to four minutes in quiet reflection before returning to their scientific work.

Why This Inspires

This journey represents more than beautiful photography. The original Earthrise photo from Apollo 8 in 1968 helped spark the modern environmental movement by showing Earth as a fragile world suspended in darkness.

This new Earthset image carries different meaning. It's not improvised or accidental like that famous Christmas Eve shot. This moment was planned and intentional, signaling humanity's deliberate return to the moon after more than half a century away.

"Human minds shouldn't have to go through what these just went through," Wiseman said. "It is a true gift."

The crew later captured their own Earthrise image as they emerged from behind the moon, but it was that initial Earthset that moved them most deeply. The view reminded them that some experiences transcend training and preparation, touching something fundamentally human in all of us.

After 54 years, we're back at the moon, and the view of home is as powerful as ever.