APOD: 2026 April 11 – Artemis II: Flight Day 6
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2026 April 11
Artemis II: Flight Day 6
Image Credit:
Explanation:
On flight day 6
(April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a
historic lunar flyby.
Rounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked
humanity’s first venture to the Moon
since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The Orion spacecraft Integrity reached a maximum distance of nearly
407,000 kilometers, and the
Artemis II crew,
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen,
set the record for the farthest distance from Earth
traveled by any human since the
Apollo 13 crew in 1970.
From behind the Moon on flight day 6, a solar array wing camera
recorded this space age selfie,
framing the spacecraft and lunar far side.
Planet Earth, home to the Artemis II crew,
is the small, bright crescent beyond the lunar limb.
The crew safely returned home on Artemis II mission
flight day 10.
Artemis II:
Splashdown
Tomorrow’s picture: new comet
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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