04-06-2026
Shooting the Moon: Inside the Most Photographically Ambitious Space Mission in Decades
How a ten-year-old DSLR, a last-minute mirrorless camera, GoPros, iPhones, and 32 lenses are documenting humanity’s return to deep space aboard Artemis II
Right now — as you read this — four astronauts are circling the Moon at a distance not reached by humans since Apollo 17 in 1972. And they have more cameras pointed in more directions than any crewed spacecraft in history. The Artemis II mission launched April 1, 2026, carrying a total of 32 cameras and imaging devices aboard the Orion spacecraft — from fixed engineering sensors bolted to the solar array wings to a flagship mirrorless that almost didn’t make the manifest. The resulting archive of photographs may be the defining visual record of the 21st-century space age. So what exactly is in the bag?
The Workhorse: Nikon D5
The headline choice — one that raised eyebrows across the photography community — is the Nikon D5, a camera that debuted in 2016 and has been out of production for years. NASA sent not one but two D5 bodies as Artemis II’s primary imaging workhorses, assigned to both public affairs photography and the crew’s personal photographic priorities. Commander Reid Wiseman has already used one to deliver the mission’s most talked-about image: a full-disc Earth shot with stunning cloud detail, visible auroras, and even the planet Venus — captured with a Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 22mm, f/4, ¼ sec, ISO 51200.
The D5’s selection was anything but nostalgic. Beyond low Earth orbit, spacecraft pass through the Van Allen radiation belts and operate in an environment with significantly elevated particle bombardment — and the D5 has an exceptionally well-documented resistance to those effects. Its low-noise sensor with high dynamic range is also purpose-built for the brutal contrast of deep space, where a sunlit surface and the shadow of a crater can differ by 15 or more stops of exposure. In space, proven is better than new.
The Last-Minute Mirrorless: Nikon Z9
The more dramatic story is how the Nikon Z9 got aboard at all. The original plan called for D5 bodies only — but Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman personally lobbied NASA to add a single Z9 to the manifest before the hatch closed. He succeeded, and the Z9 is now flying as a supplementary camera, also paired with telephoto lenses for high-resolution imagery through the spacecraft windows. Its 48-megapixel stacked sensor, mechanical-shutter-free design, and 8K video capability represent a generational leap over the D5 — and this flight is, in part, a real-world evaluation ahead of future missions.
The Z9’s deeper role in the Artemis program is still ahead of it. NASA and Nikon signed a Space Act Agreement in February 2024 to co-develop the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) — a heavily modified Z9 that will serve as the primary still and video camera for Artemis III, the mission that will land humans on the lunar south pole. The HULC features a custom thermal blanket rated to withstand temperatures from –200°C to +120°C, oversized controls redesigned for use with pressurized spacesuit gloves, and radiation-hardened electronics. It debuted publicly at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, and is currently targeted for an Artemis III mission tentatively planned for 2027.
The Action Cameras: GoPro in Orbit
If the Nikons are the editorial cameras of the mission, the GoPros are the documentary crew. Multiple GoPro action cameras are part of Artemis II’s imaging suite, serving two distinct roles. Modified units are mounted to the exterior of Orion on the solar array wings — essentially strapped to the outside of a spacecraft traveling 25,000 mph past the Moon — to record engineering views of the vehicle’s structure, Earth, and the lunar surface from a perspective no human eye can occupy. Additional GoPros are carried inside the cabin, where they’re capturing daily crew life footage for a National Geographic documentary series called Return to the Moon. NatGeo reportedly trained the astronauts specifically in POV camera technique for the project.
The specific models flying on Artemis II include both GoPro HERO4 Black units (legacy flight-qualified hardware) and newer GoPro Hero 11 bodies. The older HERO4 has been a NASA staple for years — its relative simplicity and proven behavior in microgravity made it a conservative choice for external mounts. The Hero 11, with its HyperSmooth stabilization and 5.3K resolution, handles the handheld interior work with far more modern capability.
The Wild Card: iPhone 17 Pro Max
The most culturally significant camera aboard Artemis II may be the one in every astronaut’s pocket. For the first time in NASA’s history, crew members were permitted to bring personal smartphones — specifically the iPhone 17 Pro Max — as personal imaging devices. NASA formally qualified the iPhone 17 Pro Max for “extended use in orbit” in February 2026, and all four Artemis II crew members were equipped with one. The agency has already released images from the iPhone 17 Pro Max through its public “Journey to the Moon” gallery, including striking portraits of astronauts silhouetted against the full Earth as seen through Orion’s windows.
What makes this notable isn’t resolution or dynamic range — the Nikons have those covered — it’s authenticity. The iPhone images have the casual intimacy of a personal travel diary: crew members floating weightless, tossing iPhones across the cabin, framing Earth from angles that feel personal rather than institutional. NASA has long understood the PR value of human-scale storytelling, and the smartphone — for the first time — gives astronauts a camera that captures their experience the same way they’d share it at home.
The Architecture: 32 Cameras, Every Angle
The full scope of Artemis II’s imaging infrastructure is staggering. NASA’s Johnson Space Center confirmed that 32 cameras and imaging devices are aboard Orion for this mission — up from 24 on the unmanned Artemis I. Of those, 15 are fixed to the spacecraft itself for engineering, navigation, and automated documentation duties. A dedicated optical navigation camera photographs Earth and the Moon to help Orion determine its position in deep space without relying solely on ground-based tracking.
The remaining 17 are handheld devices operated directly by the crew: the two Nikon D5s, the single Z9, the GoPros, and the four iPhones. External cameras mounted on the solar array wings will capture the spacecraft’s now-famous “selfie” imagery — Orion silhouetted against the Moon’s cratered limb or against the full disc of Earth — images that inevitably become the defining icons of a mission. Every angle, inside and out, is covered.
Legacy in the Frame
The Artemis II imaging kit reflects a fascinating tension at the heart of modern space photography: the conflict between the conservatism of certification and the ambition of the moment. The Nikon D5 flies because it has earned deep trust through years of verified performance in radiation environments — the same logic that keeps legacy hardware alive in aviation and nuclear power. The Z9 and iPhone fly because the humans aboard pushed for them, understanding instinctively that the photographs of this mission need to resonate not just as engineering records but as art, as history, as proof of presence.
The first Artemis II image to go viral wasn’t a precisely calibrated Earth-observation composite — it was Commander Reid Wiseman’s handheld D5 shot: the whole planet, auroras glowing at the poles, Venus a pinprick of light beside it, shot on ten-year-old gear at ISO 51200. The noise in that image, the slight grain that comes from pushing any sensor to its limit across the void, doesn’t diminish it. It authenticates it.
When Artemis III astronauts finally set foot on the lunar south pole — suited up in next-generation spacesuits, armed with the HULC — they will point a modified Z9 at a landscape no human photographer has ever stood in. Whatever they capture will be the most consequential photographs of the decade. The camera is ready. The mission is coming.
04-07-2026
Artemis II Lunar Flyby
The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.
In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
