NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon required patience. A February launch attempt became a March launch attempt. That in turn became an April launch attempt.
But NASA’s flight controllers weren’t fooling around when they went into a terminal countdown and heaved three Americans and one Canadian into space on April Fools’ Day.
For 10 days, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have sought to make real NASA’s credo of doing near-impossible things. They have gone farther into deep space than any other people. They have seen parts of the lunar far side never viewed by human eyes. They witnessed a 53-minute solar eclipse. They even prompted President Trump to ask if he could have their autographs.
The astronauts have showed us many things during their journey: their love for one another and humanity as a whole; their awe at the outcome of their explorations; their feeling of “moon joy.”
Here is what their mission looked like from their trip to the launchpad through their journey around the moon and back.
Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The Artemis II crew greeted well-wishers and family on the way to the launchpad.
Credit...Cassandra Klos for The New York Times
Spectators at the Kennedy Space Center moments after liftoff.
Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
A full moon rose over the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center the evening after takeoff.
While in Earth’s orbit, the crew jettisoned the spacecraft’s boosters, separated from the craft’s core stage and made other preparations for their journey to the moon.
Credit...NASA
Christina Koch, a mission specialist, on April 2.
Credit...NASA
Orion, the moon and Earth.
Credit...NASA
Earthset, seen on the day of the flyby, Monday, April 6.
Credit...NASA
A crescent Earth, partly obscured by the moon.
A seven-hour observation period. Clockwise from top left: Mr. Wiseman, Ms. Koch, Mr. Glover and Mr. Hansen.Credit...NASA
Credit...NASA
Orientale basin, center, one of the moon’s youngest and best-preserved large impact craters. It is about 580 miles across.
Credit...NASA
Vavilov crater, on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin.
Credit...NASA
The total solar eclipse.
Credit...NASA
The crew donned their eclipse glasses.
Credit...NASA
The sun beginning to peek out from behind the moon as the eclipse transitions out of totality.
Back on Earth, there's "moon joy" in the Science Evaluation Room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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Mr. Hansen, the first Canadian to join a moon mission, and the crew took questions from the Canadian prime minister and others on Wednesday.
Credit...NASA
Ms. Koch, seen through a window of the Orion Integrity spacecraft, in an image taken by a camera mounted on the spacecraft’s solar panel.
Credit...NASA
The moon, appearing much larger than Earth, as the Orion Integrity spacecraft begins its journey back home
Credit...NASA TV
A screenshot from a live feed with Reid Wiseman, left, and Victor Glover, as Mr. Wiseman showed a photo he had just taken of Earth with his smartphone, about five hours from splashdown.
Credit...NASA, via Associated Press
A screenshot from the European Space Agency’s service module, whose solar panels carried some of the cameras that provided so many of these images, as the Orion spacecraft separated on its way back to Earth.
Credit...NASA
Splashdown occurred 47 seconds past 8:07 p.m., Eastern time, according to Rob Navias of NASA.
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