https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/07/artemis-ii-flight-day-7-crew-makes-long%E2%80%91distance-call-begins-return/

Artemis II Flight Day 7: Crew Makes

Long‑Distance Call,

Begins Return

"(April 6, 2026) – 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."

NASA

______________________________________________________________

https://www.aol.com/articles/first-artemis-ii-moon-mission-195500594.html

In a first, Artemis II moon mission astronauts make ‘ship to ship’ call to ISS

Quote:

JACKIE FLYNN MOGENSEN

NASA’s Artemis II mission made history again on Tuesday when the crew, traveling on their Orion spacecraft, completed the first-ever “ship to ship” call between a human moon mission and the International Space Station (ISS).

The Artemis II crew members—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—were “all smiles” as they spoke with their nearer-to-Earth colleagues, Wiseman said after the call ended. The Artemis II crew spoke on an approximately 15-minute, audio-only call with ISS NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Chris Williams, and Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, trading quips about the good, the bad and the ugly of spaceflight.

“We can tell that you guys are definitely experiencing ‘moon joy.’ I feel like even we are experiencing ‘moon joy’ right now,” Meir told the lunar voyagers, using a term that’s since become something of a catchphrase of the Artemis II mission.

"The Artemis II crew's view of a solar eclipse from the Orion spacecraft."