The crew of Artemis II captured what NASA chief called an “absolutely amazing” photo of the moon eclipsing the sun, and the spacecraft broke Apollo 13’s 56-year record for longest human journey from Earth.
“This is not AI,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“This is why we do what we do,” Isaacman said as Artemis II continued its return to Earth.
The White House released photos taken by Artemis II on Monday, and NASA released other photos from the Orion capsule, which carried four astronauts on a six-hour lunar flight.
A view of the moon covering the sun on Artemis II.
NASA
Isaacman said, “I just saw the photos about five minutes before I got into this interview, and all I can say is that they looked amazing.”
The Artemis crew “said in a webcast last night that they don’t know if the human eye will be ready to see what they captured,” he said.
A view of the moon as the Artemis II mission’s Orion spacecraft approaches to reach its furthest distance from Earth. This screenshot was taken from a livestream video on April 6, 2026.
NASA | via Reuters
“When I saw that, I just stopped,” Isaacman said. “This is why we are sending more astronaut fathers into space than ever before.”
“That’s why we bring them home to learn and continue what we think is the greatest adventure in human history,” he said.
“We’re shocked by what we’re seeing with the naked eye from the moon right now,” Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen said via radio from the spacecraft on Monday.
“I can’t believe it,” Hansen, a Canadian, said, according to an Associated Press report.
The remaining three crew members, including Captain Reed Wiseman, wept on Monday as Hansen asked the crew for permission to name a new crater on the moon after Wiseman’s late wife, who died of cancer in 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Artemis is NASA’s first spacecraft to fly on the moon since Apollo 17 landed on the moon in December 1972.
President Donald Trump told the crew during a phone call Monday: “You guys made history and really made America proud.”
NASA plans to launch Artemis III in 2027 to practice docking the lunar module.
On April 2, 2026, NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch looks back at Earth from the main cabin window of the Orion spacecraft as the crew moves towards the moon.
NASA | via Reuters
The space agency aims to land two astronauts on the moon’s south pole in 2028 with the Artemis IV mission.
“In the coming months, in fact by the beginning of 2027, we’re going to be landing unmanned robotic missions on the moon’s south pole on an almost monthly basis and actually start building a lunar base,” Isaacman said Tuesday.
