When the moon hits your eye from your Orion ship up high, that's a 'mare' for Artemis 2

The Artemis 2 crew took this photo on April 4, 2026, Day 4 of their journey to the moon. The moon is oriented with the south pole at the top. Orientale Basin is on the right edge of the lunar disk in this image. Artemis 2 marks the first time that humans have seen the entire basin. The astronauts will continue to observe Orientale from multiple angles as they approach the moon and throughout the lunar flyby. Orientale is the textbook multi-ring impact basin used as a baseline to compare other impact craters on rocky worlds from Mercury to Pluto.

HOUSTON — NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts have officially struck "moon joy."

The four astronauts flying around the moon on NASA's Artemis 2 mission had a chance to observe their lunar target late Saturday (April 4), just two days before their historic flyby of Earth's nearest neighbor. And to say the crew was thrilled may be an understatement of cosmic proportions.