Overview
- NASA has posted more than 12,000 Artemis II photos to its Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth archive, giving the public and researchers access to high‑resolution mission imagery.
- The collection features uncommon views that include the moon’s far side, a solar eclipse seen from lunar orbit, Earthrise and Earthset, and detailed shots of craters, lava flows and surface fractures for geologic study.
- The images came from SD cards returned after splashdown and were captured with two Nikon D5 bodies, a Nikon Z9, iPhones and GoPros mounted outside the Orion spacecraft.
- The 10‑day crewed flyby launched April 1, reached a closest approach of about 4,067 miles on April 6, and ended with an April 10 splashdown, the first human trip around the moon since 1972.
- NASA plans to ingest the set into its Planetary Data System within six months, while image‑stacking work with commander Reid Wiseman by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy is already pulling out color signals tied to minerals that can inform future landing plans.