NASA’s Artemis II astronaut captures a unique Earthset video
This stunning moment was captured with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
NASA’s Artemis II mission created a moment that seems both distant and strangely familiar when astronaut Reid Wiseman captured a rare “Earthset” image of our planet slowly disappearing beyond the lunar horizon. It’s not just the image itself that’s surprising, but also how it was captured. Instead of using specialized equipment, Wiseman used an iPhone 17 Pro Max, turning a once-in-a-lifetime sighting into something that seems surprisingly accessible.
“Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset,” Wiseman wrote in an X post. The moment when Earth appears to sink below the moon’s horizon, Earthset was captured by the Artemis II crew from Orion on April 6, 2026, during the historic lunar flyby.
“I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window, but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view,” Wiseman added.
This video stands out from other images from the mission. Fellow astronaut Christina Koch documented the journey with professional cameras, which resulted in sharper and more polished images. Wiseman’s version is different, with slight autofocus adjustments and handheld framing. That rawness is part of the video’s appeal. It feels less like official NASA footage and more like a personal recording, even if the setting is anything but ordinary.
The online reaction was immediate, with the video racking up millions of views within hours. Many hailed it as the most compelling moment ever captured on an iPhone. But a few skeptics questioned whether the video could have been generated by artificial intelligence or digitally rendered. Others indulged in irony, calling it a reputation Apple could never script, or suggesting that perhaps it was time for an update to the device.
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All images courtesy of NASA.
