What Was It Like Inside Artemis II During the Solar Eclipse? #ArtemisII #SolarEclipse #Moonmission

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]What would it feel like to witness a total solar eclipse from near the moon?

[00:00:06]NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts say the moment was so surreal.

[00:00:10]The Orion spacecraft filled with gasps and people saying, "Oh my god."

[00:00:16]Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman later revealed that reaction [music] after the crew experienced one of the rarest views in spaceflight history.

[00:00:25]On April 6th, 2026, during Artemis II's lunar flyby mission, the Orion spacecraft moved into perfect alignment behind the moon.

[00:00:36]From the astronauts' perspective, Earth and and the moon blocked the sun, creating a total solar eclipse in deep space.

[00:00:45]But, unlike eclipses on Earth that usually last only a few minutes, the Artemis II crew experienced about 53 to 54 minutes of totality near the moon.

[00:00:58]For nearly an hour, the astronauts watched the sun's corona glow around the darkened edge of the moon, a view almost no human has ever witnessed.

[00:01:08]Astronaut Jeremy Hansen said they could also see Earth's atmosphere shining like a thin blue halo around the planet.

[00:01:15][music] And while traveling nearly 240,000 mi from Earth, they could even spot city lights glowing on the planet's night [music] side.

[00:01:27]The eclipse happened shortly after the crew passed behind the moon during a planned communications [music] blackout with Earth.

[00:01:35]NASA says moments like this are helping prepare [music] astronauts for future deep space missions, including future moon landings and eventual missions to Mars. [music] Not CGI, not science fiction.

[00:01:49]Real astronauts watching a nearly hour-long solar eclipse from deep space.

[00:01:55]Follow and subscribe for more real space discoveries and the future of human space flight.