Artemis 2 captures rare view of the Moon's far side during lunar flyby

Space.com reports that NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts photographed the Moon's far side during a lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, a period when Earth–Moon communications paused for about 40 minutes; the Orion spacecraft carried a four‑astronaut crew roughly 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth—the farthest humans have ventured—continuing NASA's first crewed Moon mission since Apollo.