Each Avatar chip contains bone marrow cell samples from the four Artemis II crew members.
Artemis II’s Integrity was on its way back home on 2026-04-08.
The Artemis II crew captured the Earthset image on April 6, 2026, while their capsule flew around the Moon.
Artemis II marks NASA’s return to human flight in lunar orbit within the Artemis program.
NASA compared the Artemis II Earthset image to the Earthrise image taken by astronaut Bill Anders during Apollo 8 in 1968.
The Orion capsule on Artemis II entered the far side of the Moon during the mission’s central phase.
The Artemis II crew was selected in April 2023.
The Artemis II crew completed humanity’s first crewed lunar pass in over 50 years.
Orion and its crew were isolated from Earth for several minutes during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
Artemis II operated in circumlunar space during the lunar-orbit eclipse observation.
Artemis II completed a return trajectory correction burn.
The Artemis II crew observed color and albedo changes in material at Ohm crater’s ejecta rays.
The Apollo 8 Earthrise image was taken 58 years before the Artemis II Earthset image.
Jeremy Hansen and the other Artemis II crew members spent approximately seven hours taking turns at Orion’s windows to capture science data for their team on Earth.
Artemis II is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 10.
The four-person Artemis II crew has surpassed the Apollo 13-era record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth.
NASA expects to release additional Artemis II images in the coming days.
The Artemis II crew consisted of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Astronauts aboard Orion observed the crater Mare Orientale during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
Artemis II surpassed Apollo 13’s 1970 record by traveling more than 406,000 kilometers from Earth.