Viewers were moonstruck over the clip.
Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman caused jaws to drop online after sharing spectacular footage of the Earth and moon — which he captured on his iPhone.
A dreamy-looking X video of the clip, which boasts over 12 million views, shows the Earth setting behind its rocky satellite, demonstrating the uniqueness of Artemis II’s vantage point.
“Would you look at that, man?” Wiseman exclaimed in the clip.
Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield dubbed the footage (above) the “coolest video ever taken with an iPhone.” X / @astro_reidIn the caption, the spaceman wrote that he had “only one chance in this lifetime” to get a shot like that.
“I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset,” said Wiseman, who compared the moment to “watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos.”
Why shoot one of the most incredible spectacles on the humble iPhone?
“I could barely see the moon through the docking hatch window,” Wiseman explained, “but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view.”
“I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset,” said Wiseman (above). NASA / SWNSIn addition, the clip is “uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom,” making it on par with the “view of the human eye.”
X viewers were impressed with the shot, with retired astronaut Chris Hadfield dubbing it the “coolest video ever taken with an iPhone.”
“Seeing an iPhone recording of the moon really humanizes the whole experience,” said another fan, with one observer noting that it was the “farthest a consumer smartphone has ever been from Earth.”
The trip was the farthest an iPhone has ever traveled. X / @astro_reid
“Roughly 250,000 miles away, handheld through a docking hatch window, at 8x zoom with no modifications,” they wrote.
The mission, which ended with splashdown on April 10, marked the first time humans had seen the moon up close since Apollo 17 left it in 1972.
During the historic jaunt, the spacecraft ferried Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen 252,756 miles from Earth on Monday, shattering the 248,655-mile record set by Apollo 13 nearly 56 years ago to the date in 1970.
NASA will now focus on reviewing data from the Artemis II mission before creating plans for Artemis III, which, much like the recent endeavor, will comprise a pass of the moon without a landing.
A potential lunar touchdown will occur in 2028 with Artemis IV, during which astronauts are projected to lay the foundation for a permanent moon base.
NASA predicts it will act as a launchpad for future space missions, including one to Mars.
