PHOTOS: NASA releases new photos from Artemis II mission

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy joins FOX Weather to showcase some of the iconic photos from the historic Artemis II mission. McCarthy details his collaboration with Commander Reid Wiseman and how he enhances these images to show features invisible to the naked eye.

NASA has just released more than 12,000 new, high-resolution images from the recent, record-setting Artemis II mission around the far side of the moon.

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US Navy divers secure NASA’s Orion Capsule during recovery operations following a successful uncrewed Artemis I moon mission after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on December 11, 2022. Orion was launched November 16 on the Artemis rocket for a 25-day mission to the Moon. The main goal of this mission was to test Orion’s heat shield — for the day when it is humans and not test mannequins riding inside.

(Mario Tama / POOL / AFP / Getty Images)

Last month, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen completed a 10-day, 694,481-mile mission, becoming the first astronauts to fly around the moon in more than 50 years.

This mission served as a critical test for the Orion spacecraft and a key building block of the Artemis program, which hopes to establish a long-term lunar base by 2030.

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While the bulk of these images have not been cataloged and annotated by NASA, they can be viewed here.

Check out some of the breathtaking views.