# The Best Images from Artemis II
The Planetary Society has compiled striking photographs from NASA's Artemis II mission, capturing humanity's return to lunar exploration. The images document the Space Launch System rocket's ascent, the Orion spacecraft's journey through cislunar space, and the crew module's interaction with Earth's atmosphere and the Moon's gravity.
Artemis II sent four astronauts on a 10-day flight that looped around the Moon without landing. The mission tested Orion's life support systems, heat shields, and guidance computers ahead of the Artemis III landing scheduled for 2026. Photographers captured the SLS rocket departing Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022, after years of delays and technical refinements.
The collected images reveal the spacecraft's solar arrays unfurling in sunlight, the lunar surface receding below Orion's windows, and the craft's splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. These photographs document critical engineering achievements. They show how the blunt-body Orion capsule withstands reentry temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, a requirement for safe crew return from deep space missions.
The Planetary Society's gallery serves as a visual record of NASA's renewed lunar program. Each image validates the engineering and flight operations that support NASA's broader Artemis architecture, which aims to establish sustained human presence on the Moon.