PHOTOS: Artemis II crew sends first photos from long-in-coming lunar mission

April 4, 2026 | 11:55 AM

An image of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP) — This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP)

The Earth peeks through a window of the Orion capsule in this photo taken by NASA's Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP) — This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP)

A view of the Moon taken by an Artemis II crew member through the window of the Orion spacecraft on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA) — A view of the Moon taken by an Artemis II crewmember through the window of the Orion spacecraft on the third day of the mission.

NASA said Orion snapped this high-resolution selfie in space with a camera mounted on one of its solar array wings during a routine external inspection of the spacecraft on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA) — Orion snapped this high-resolution selfie in space with a camera mounted on one of its solar array wings during a routine external inspection of the spacecraft on the second day into the Artemis II mission.

This image released by NASA on Thursday, April 2, 2026, shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Earth in the background. (NASA via AP)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Guests watch the launch of NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft and four crew members at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images) — In this handout image provided by NASA, Guests watch the launch of NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA's Artemis II mission,, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT, from Launch Complex 39B. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images)

Solid rocket boosters are seen as they fall away after separating from NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket shortly after the Artemis II crewed lunar mission lift off from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, 2026. (Photo by Miguel J Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images) — The solid rocket boosters are seen as they fall away after separating from NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket shortly after the Artemis II crewed lunar mission lift off from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, 2026. Four astronauts blasted off aboard a massive NASA rocket April 1 on a long-anticipated journey around the Moon, the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years. With an intense roar that reverberated far beyond the launchpad, the enormous orange-and-white rocket carried three Americans and one Canadian away from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at approximately 6:35 pm local time, according to an AFP journalist onsite. "We're going to the Moon!" yelled a spectator. (Photo by Miguel J Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)

The Artemis II crew, from left, Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover as they speak with NASA Mission Control in a video conference while en route to the moon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP) — This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover as they speak with NASA Mission Control in a video conference while en route to the moon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP) CORRECTION: headed to the moon, not in moon's orbit

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, and Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, walk out before traveling to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026. (Photo by Jim WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) — (L/R) Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, and Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, walk out before traveling to the launch pad to board the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis II crewed lunar mission at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, 2026. On Wednesday three men and one woman are set to embark on the first crewed journey to the Moon since 1972, a landmark odyssey that aims to launch the US into a new era of space exploration. The NASA mission dubbed Artemis 2 has been years in the making after facing repeated setbacks, but is finally scheduled to take off from Florida as early as April 1 at 6:24 pm (2224 GMT). (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

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Like most people on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, these travelers will be taking a lot of photos. The main difference is, they’re doing so while hurtling through space toward the moon.

Artemis II, which launched April 1, is NASA’s first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

During their ten-day mission, astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Baltimore County native Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch have been tasked with observing and photographing the far side of the moon.

NASA has released some of the photos they’ve taken on the way.

Inside Obama’s presidential museum opening this month: The cost, the books and a beehive

June 4, 2026 | 1:07 AM

CHICAGO (AP) — The Obama Presidential Center will open June 19 more than a decade after the former president chose his hometown of Chicago for the project. The museum displays campaign memorabilia and presidential artifacts, while its campus showcases a new community basketball court, public library and playground. A look at the numbers behind the former President Barack Obama's presidential museum. $850 million The approximate cost to build the 225-foot museum tower and nearly 20-acre campus, which the Obama Foundation is paying for with private donations. The cost ballooned from the initial estimates of $350 million.

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