Photo: NASA / Getty Images News / Getty Images
Reid Wiseman, commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission, filmed and shared a striking video of “Earthset”—the gradual disappearance of Earth behind the moon’s far side—during the crew’s historic lunar flyby earlier this month. Wiseman posted the video to X, describing the view as "like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos” and called it “only one chance in this lifetime."
The footage, shot on April 6 from the Orion spacecraft’s window using his iPhone with 8x zoom, shows the Earth shrinking and fading away beyond the cratered horizon of the moon. Swirling clouds over Australia and Oceania are visible just before Earth vanishes from sight—a view only a handful of humans have ever witnessed. Wiseman explained, “I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window, but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view… this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom, which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye."
During the seven-hour lunar flyby, Wiseman’s fellow crew members, including pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, were also busy documenting the moon's rugged landscape. Koch used a professional camera with a long lens to snap high-resolution photos of the same scene. The team set a new record, traveling about 252,756 miles from Earth—farther than any previous crewed mission—and became the first group in over 50 years to see an Earthset from the moon’s far side.
Artemis II launched on Monday, April 1 and returned to Earth after a 10-day mission, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on Thursday, April 10. The crew also witnessed a solar eclipse from lunar orbit and closely observed the moon’s surface features, such as ancient lava flows and meteoroid impacts.
Wiseman’s Earthset video is a modern nod to the iconic “Earthrise” photo taken by Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968, but with Earth slipping out of view instead of rising. NASA plans to release more images from the mission in the coming months.
Looking ahead, NASA is preparing for Artemis III, scheduled for launch in 2027, which will test docking technology between Orion and commercial lunar landers before a planned moon landing with Artemis IV in 2028. The Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually enable missions to Mars.