Artemis II daily logbook 6: A unique and poignant view of the Moon

Uploaded on April 8, 2026

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Artemis II daily logbook 6: A unique and poignant view of the Moon

The Artemis II crew witnessed the near and far sides of the Moon during their lunar flyby, surpassing Apollo 13's distance record and becoming the humans who have flown the farthest from Earth. Using their geology training, they were the eyes of a team of scientists. They observed and photographed lava flows, lunar features and craters, two of which they proposed names for. But most of all, the four astronauts shared their humanity with people back on Earth.  (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA)

Reid

As soon as we went out of comm with planet Earth, we did have maple cookies.

We had to take a moment to honour that time going behind the Moon.

Jenni

Integrity crew, on April 15, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission, three explorers set the record for the farthest distance humans have ever travelled from our home planet. Today, for all humanity, you’re pushing beyond that frontier.

Texte on screen

With these words, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Gibbons marked the historic moment when the Artemis II crew surpassed the distance record for human spaceflight.

For about seven hours, they observed, described and photographed the surface of the Moon.  

They witnessed…

The near and far side of the Moon, including things never seen by human eyes.

Craters of all sizes, one the size of Alberta

A solar eclipse that revealed the Sun’s corona, levitating lunar dust and flashes of light from micrometeoroid impacts, stars and planets

They experienced an Earthset and Earthrise 

and a planned loss of communications that cut them off from their 8 billion fellow humans at home.

We came for the science and to explore.

But what we also saw are tremendous displays of humanity.

The crew suggested naming two craters on the Moon.

Jeremy

The first one we’d like to suggest is a named crater in honour of our great spacecraft Integrity.

And the second one, and especially meaningful for this crew, is a number of years ago we started this journey and our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll. The spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie. And it’s a bright spot on the Moon. And we would like to call it Carroll.

Texte on screen

The Artemis II crew brought us with them to the Moon, sharing not only their work, but their heartfelt words, their amazement, their curiosity, their pure friendship and their love.

Victor

Thank you to all of you for allowing us the immense privilege to be on this journey together. And as we go on this journey thinking about the NASA mission to explore the unknown in air and space, to innovate for the benefit of humanity and to inspire the world through discovery, and as you have gone along on this journey with us, hopefully we’re doing just those things.

Jenni

Copy Moon joy.

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