See the first close-up photos of the moon from NASA's Artemis II mission

SpaceSee the first close-up photos of the moon from NASA's Artemis II missionThe crew spent about seven hours circling the moon, taking photographs and making observations of never-before-seen features.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon in this photo from the far side of the moon captured from Orion on Monday.NASAShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 7, 2026, 8:53 AM EDTBy Denise ChowFor the first time ever, humans have glimpsed the entire far side of the moon with their own eyes — and their photos are beginning to come in.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In what was the most highly anticipated moment of the Artemis II mission, four astronauts flew around the moon Monday, snapping photos and making detailed observations out the window of their Orion spacecraft.NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen captured a slew of photos of the moon’s rugged terrain, sprawling impact craters and vast, dark plains.The moon eclipses the sun in a view captured from lunar orbit on Monday.NASAWiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen spent around seven hours taking photographs and gathering notes about surface features on the moon during the flyby. They became the first people to see the lunar far side, which is not visible from Earth because that part of the moon permanently faces away from our planet. Even during the Apollo missions, astronauts couldn’t view much of the moon’s far side because of the paths and timing of their flights.Now, the four Artemis II astronauts have become trailblazers for all of humanity.Their early observations elicited celebrations from the mission's lunar science team throughout the flyby. Glover, for instance, was particularly captivated by the jagged topography along the moon’s terminator, the dividing line between its illuminated side and the side cloaked in darkness.“Boy, I am lovi...