What you won’t see in the pictures are any stars. This image provided by NASA shows a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from of the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

During the mission's loop around the moon, the crew took geological observations of places of interest on the lunar surface, snapping thousands of photos of the surface.

As Earth goes out of sight, radio contact with mission control will drop for roughly 40 minutes because the moon itself blocks the line of sight back home. Even without that link, the crew will keep working in the Orion spacecraft, dubbed Integrity, using onboard devices to capture images, measurements, and notes.

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