• Artemis II crew captures first full image of moon’s far side
• Humans see Orientale Basin in its entirety for the first time

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission has shared a photo of the Moon’s far side for the first time during their space journey.

The team includes astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, aboard the Orion spacecraft, which will circle the Moon’s far side before returning to Earth.

“There’s something strange—I feel this isn’t the Moon I’m used to seeing,” said Koch.

The crew posted an image of the Orientale Basin on the Moon, which NASA confirmed is the first time humans have seen the basin in its entirety.

In a post on X, NASA wrote: “History in the making! In this new image from our Artemis II crew, you can see the Orientale Basin at the right edge of the lunar disk. This mission marks the first time the basin has been seen completely by human eyes.”

The Orientale Basin is one of the largest impact craters on the Moon, located on the far side, which is never visible from Earth.

The basin consists of multiple rings of rock and craters formed by a massive collision billions of years ago, making it one of the Moon’s most prominent geological features and revealing secrets about its formation.