Fifty-seven years after one of the most influential space photographs in human history changed how humanity sees its home planet, NASA has released a new historic image captured by the Artemis II crew: a striking view of ‘Earthset’ as our world dips beyond the bleak gray lunar horizon.
The image was taken from the Orion capsule, which is carrying four astronauts on the first crewed lunar flyby mission in more than 50 years, marking a major milestone for NASA’s long-term Artemis program. The frame mirrors the 1968 ‘Earthrise’ shot that forever shifted public perspective on our planet, captured by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during humanity’s first crewed mission to orbit the Moon.
Both NASA and the White House shared the new ‘Earthset’ image on the social platform X, alongside a brief caption from the White House that framed the moment as a historic first: “Humanity, from the other side. First photo from the far side of the Moon. Captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon.”
The Artemis II crew, made up of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, is currently completing a 10-day looping mission around the Moon that lays critical groundwork for the program’s target: the first crewed lunar landing in more than 50 years, currently scheduled for 2028. Over the course of the mission, the astronauts have shared detailed, vivid observations of the lunar surface’s rugged features, and have already witnessed other rare astronomical events. Alongside the ‘Earthset’ image, the White House also released a NASA-captured photo of a deep space solar eclipse, where the Moon passed directly between the Orion capsule and the Sun — a sight the administration noted “few in human history have ever witnessed.”
The original 1968 ‘Earthrise’ image remains a cultural touchstone for space exploration. During Apollo 8’s 10 orbits of the Moon (which, like Artemis II, did not include a surface landing), Anders snapped the iconic frame that showed Earth’s vivid blue oceans and continents glowing brightly against the endless black of deep space, framed by the desolate gray foreground of the lunar horizon. The shot has consistently ranked among the most influential photographs ever taken, and was included in Life magazine’s 2003 landmark collection *100 Photographs That Changed the World*. The new ‘Earthset’ image carries on that legacy, offering a fresh perspective of our home planet from the lunar neighborhood as NASA works to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.