Artemis II marks NASA's first return to the moon with astronauts — a critical step toward a lunar landing by another crew in two years.

The Artemis II mission is now speeding back toward Earth, with the spacecraft due to splash down on Friday evening off the coast of California.

Over seven hours, the astronauts took thousands of photos that will help inform scientists’ understanding of the moon. The first ones have now been released.

Astronauts aboard Artemis II have shared some spectacular images from space and the source came as a surprise to viewers on social media. NASA shared three photos from astronauts aboard the mission, all of which were shot by an iPhone. The pictures, shared during mission preparations, were taken using Apple’s latest iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The Artemis II astronauts witnessed a solar eclipse from space during their historic flyby over the moon, a sight few have seen in person.

Take a look at some of the incredible pictures captured by the Artemis II astronauts on their history-making journey around the Moon. The crew have travelled to a part of space never visited by humans - until now.

While science can seem colorless and plain, NASA’s lunar crew members have brought expressiveness and emotion about their journey to mission control and the public.

After traveling a record distance from Earth, the Artemis II crew saw incredible things. “This continues to be unreal,” pilot Victor Glover said.

Observers were left confused by NASA's statement that the Artemis II crew are the first humans to see the far side of the moon.

But experts said the surface of the Moon was “far more colourful” than commonly realised, because of metals and minerals in the lunar dust. The green shades suggest the presence of titanium, or of olivine, the mineral that constitutes peridot gemstones. Brown patches are probably caused by iron oxide, also known as rust.