The riskiest moments of NASA’s Artemis II mission may still be ahead

In this handout image provided by NASA, as the Artemis II crew came close to passing behind the Moon and experiencing a planned loss of signal, they captured this image of a crescent Earth setting on the Moon’s limb on April 6, 2026. In this photo, the dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime, while Australia and Oceania are in daylight. In the foreground, the Ohm crater is visible, with terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Peaks such as these form in complex craters when the lunar surface is liquified on impact, and the liquefied surface splashes upward during the crater’s formation.