Just 1,500 feet (457 m) from the Artemis II launch, we deployed our special high-resolution, slow-motion camera to record the blast-off in jaw-dropping detail at 2,000 frames per second. Find out how we did it: on.natgeo.com/0BXGmi

Artemis II launch in VERY slow motion

Artemis II launch from the tower in slow motion. ‍Graded and re-interpolated by me, shot by NASA!

“I’m the space plumber, I’m proud to call myself the space plumber.”

Mission specialists like Christina H Koch train for all roles so they can jump in wherever they’re needed. Sometimes that means fixing vital machinery, like the spacecraft toilet.

In this image, also taken from the Orion capsule, we see the divide between night and day, known as the terminator, cutting across Earth. Whether awake or dreaming, we're all here on this planet together.

Artemis II update: our European Service Module's main engine performed the translunar injection so precisely that flight controllers in Houston decided to cancel the first of three outbound trajectory correction burns on the way to the Moon🥳

Working up an appetite!

As Victor Glover gets in his exercise for the day, Jeremy R. Hansen is preparing the crew's midday meal.

You've seen his visualizations. Now, meet the man who knows the far side of the Moon like the back of his hand.

Ernie Wright maps the Moon, which comes in handy when training NASA Artemis astronauts to see parts of the lunar surface humans have never laid eyes on before.

Artemis II Science Officer, reporting for duty. 🚀

There’s a new “SCIENCE” seat in the main NASA Artemis flight control room. Yesterday, Kelsey Young of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center became the first person to step into this role during an Artemis mission.

The Science Officer represents a whole community. Just one floor away, in a backroom at Mission Control, the Artemis II Lunar Science Team is hard at work. They have been preparing for this moment – and getting astronauts ready for Moon observing missions – for years.

They’ve led training expeditions to Earth's most Moon-like places, custom-built lunar geology classes, worked out the fine points of photographing the Moon from space, and spent countless hours in mission simulations.

Now, together with the crew and flight controllers, they’re not just helping Artemis II reach its full science potential—they’re laying a strong foundation for future missions.

Meet the Artemis II Science Officers: go.nasa.gov/4bRILw9

Fun fact: The main engine behind the boost to the moon flew before on six Space Shuttle Atlantis missions.

The European Service Module has 33 engines, but this is the only one capable of sending the Orion spacecraft towards the Moon, some 380 000 kilometres away.