A Setting Earth, Artemis II

Three minutes before loss of signal. Earth sinks behind the Moon as Orion heads into silence. April 6, 2026, 6:41 p.m. EDT. Three minutes. That's how long the crew had before Orion slipped behind the Moon and every link to Earth went quiet for 40 minutes. This is what they were looking at. The lunar surface fills the entire frame in sharp detail. In the foreground, Ohm crater, with its terraced walls and flat floor interrupted by central peaks, formed when the surface rebounded upward during impact. Beyond it, Earth. Small, distant, half in darkness. On the day side, clouds swirl over Australia and Oceania. The rest has turned to night. There's something about the composition. The Moon taking up almost everything, solid and close and loud with geology. Earth barely holding on at the edge, about to vanish. Three minutes later it did. This image retains its original framing as captured aboard Orion. The visible grain is inherent to deep space photography conditions. We keep it as is. It's part of what makes this real. Photo: NASA / Artemis II, Lunar Flyby