Artemis II, the first mission to the moon in over 50 years, landed safely back on Earth earlier this week.
They completed a lunar flyby on their journey, taking the ship around the dark side of the moon, which evidently wasn’t all that dark (sorry, Pink Floyd fans).
While the Apollo missions had taken some trips around Earth’s favorite rocky orb, those earlier missions flew by the moon at a much closer range than Artemis II, which means that their field of view was limited to the parts of the moon they were directly overtop of — mainly, the equator.
Artemis II took the long way around, staying at a much higher altitude, which meant they got a look at the entirely of the moon.
All that to say? The pictures they took were absolutely stunning for a space nerd like me, which means I think they’re at least worth a peek for just about everyone.