Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew's flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth's day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater's formation.

Moon Signs

For 10 days in April, I made the Artemis II mission my entire personality. I tuned in every morning to hear the crew's wake-up song from NASA's official playlist, and kept the live feed on all day via desktop or tv like a police scanner. The booster jettison, the naming of Carroll Crater, the unceremonious omission of Pink Pony Club’s chorus…I was there in real time for it all. It made me feel human, connected, and ironically grounded as we floated along with Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy.