NASA releases 12,000 more Artemis II astronaut images inspiring ‘moon joy’
The NASA-Canadian crew trained for 2 years to photograph details of the moon and document their journey. A new image dump from the Artemis II mission shows it paid off.
NASA shared newly released images taken by the Artemis II astronauts during the April 2026 lunar flyby mission around the moon. Here are some of the best photos shot during the flight.
NASA released a new cache of images taken by the Artemis II astronauts during their April moon flyby, and the photos are pure “moon joy,” a term the crew coined during the 10-day mission.
About 12,000 new images taken by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, were uploaded to the agency’s astronaut photography website.
Details of the lunar surface taken during the Artemis II mission, in April 2026, by the astronauts during a 10-day lunar flyby. (Image: Reid Wiseman/NASA)
Many of the images show details from the far side of the moon, including shadowed regions of interest to lunar geologists. Others highlight the unique perspective of photographing the moon with Earth looming more than 250,000 miles away.
The astronauts also photographed a solar eclipse after their lunar flyby.
An image of the moon and a solar eclipse from inside the Orion spacecraft taken during the Artemis II mission in April 2026 by the astronauts during a 10-day lunar flyby. (Image credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman)
Many images show Orion’s windows framing the moon or Earth, giving viewers a sense of what the crew saw as they looked out from the spacecraft.
An image of the moon and Earth from inside the Orion spacecraft taken during the Artemis II mission in April 2026 by the astronauts during a 10-day lunar flyby. (Image credit: NASA)
About 28 cameras supported the Artemis II mission, including devices mounted inside and outside Orion. Astronauts used cameras such as the Nikon D5 and Nikon Z 9, along with an iPhone 17 Pro Max, for photography in space. The crew also used GoPro cameras, provided by National Geographic, to document daily life inside the spacecraft.
An image taken during the Artemis II mission in April 2026 by the astronauts during a 10-day lunar flyby.
A geology imaging team helped target areas on the lunar surface for the crew to capture. The images could help inform future landing site decisions as NASA works toward returning humans to the lunar surface.
