The Artemis II crew photographed an Earthset from lunar orbit on April 6 — the Earth dropping below the Moon's curved horizon as the Orion spacecraft transited the far side. [1] The image was distributed through NASA's daily press briefing and shared widely: four humans, 400,000 kilometers from home, watching their planet set.

Splashdown is scheduled for Friday. The crew launched from Cape Canaveral on April 1 in what NASA described as humanity's first crewed lunar orbit mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The 53-year gap between visits is the kind of number that requires sitting with — a species that reached the Moon, decided there were other priorities, and eventually decided to go back. [2]

The Artemis II crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — have conducted daily press briefings throughout the mission, describing the view of the far side, the mechanics of the free-return trajectory, and the experience of seeing Earth recede to a small blue circle surrounded by absolute darkness. Their language in those briefings has been notable for its understatement.

The timing of the mission is not lost on observers who track both the war and the space program. The crew has been orbiting the Moon while the planet below managed its most serious military confrontation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They will land on Friday, two days after the ceasefire announcement. The contrast is not ironic. It is simply what the week produced. [1]

-- KENJI NAKAMURA, Tokyo