Moon Joy June may be over, but Moon Joy never dies!
NASA’s Artemis missions represent the future of space exploration. We choose to go to the Moon to inspire a new generation of explorers, to prepare for the first crewed missions to Mars, and to make discoveries for the benefit of all.
Thank you for sharing your Moon Joy with us — we feel it, too.
If you are interested in feeling even more Moon Joy, check out International Observe the Moon Night coming up on Sept. 19, 2026. You can join a community, attend an event, and meet up with other lunar observers.
The prompt for this week is “Crew.” Coincidentally, we announced the Artemis III crew last week! These four astronauts will practice docking the Orion spacecraft with two lunar landers in low Earth orbit. While Artemis III will not land on the Moon, this mission will test the complex capabilities we need to return humanity there — this time to stay.
Meet the Artemis III crew:
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Commander Randy Bresnik was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2004. Bresnik completed his first spaceflight on STS-129 in 2009 — this was the 31st shuttle flight to the International Space Station. In 2017, Bresnik served as Flight Engineer aboard the Soyuz 51S and Expedition 52 as well as Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 53.
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Pilot Luca Parmitano was selected as a European Space Agency astronaut in May 2009. In 2011, he served as a flight engineer to Italian space agency ASI’s first long-duration mission on the International Space Station. He was also the third European and first Italian to command the space station during Expedition 61, which began in 2019 and ended in 2020.
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Mission specialist Andre Douglas was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2021. Upon selection, Douglas was a senior professional staff member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab working on maritime robotics, planetary defense, and space exploration missions. He served as a backup crew member for NASA’s Artemis II mission. Artemis III will be Douglas’ first spaceflight.
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Mission specialist Frank Rubio was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2017. He lived and worked aboard the International Space Station between 2022 and 2023, breaking the record for the longest single duration spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut with a mission duration of 371 days. Dr. Rubio is a board-certified family physician and flight surgeon.
If you would like to share some crew-inspired artwork, you can share your creations on Tumblr with the #ArtemisArtShow hashtag!
This is the second week of Moon Joy June, and the prompt is “Moon.” If you’re an artist looking for some inspiration, we have a treat for you: four new and previously unseen images from our Artemis II mission!
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All four of these images were captured on April 6, 2026, during flight day 6 of the mission, when the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft conducted the lunar flyby of their ten-day journey. During the lunar flyby, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen captured photographs and collected scientific observations of the Moon in meticulous detail.
If you’re feeling inspired to make some art dedicated to our celestial neighbor, you can share your creations on Tumblr with the #ArtemisArtShow hashtag!
Moon Joy June artists! Looking for a little inspiration?
The prompt for this week is “Launch.” Here is a small collection of photos of the launch of the Artemis II mission, which took place on April 1, 2026. What followed was ten days of our Artemis astronauts circling the Moon, returning to Earth, and experiencing pure Moon joy all throughout.
