Astronaut Films Stunning Earthshine Video Using iPhone 33,800 Miles From Home

A Cosmic Selfie Illuminated by Earth's Glow

In a mesmerizing video captured 33,800 miles from Earth, Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch's face appears brilliantly lit against the darkness of space, illuminated solely by sunlight reflected off our home planet . The iPhone footage, taken during the mission's second day, shows how Earth's reflected light illuminates the Orion cabin .

The phenomenon, known as Earthshine, created a soft glow throughout the spacecraft, producing an almost cinematic scene . After a few seconds, Koch flips the camera, revealing Earth outside the capsule, with the iPhone's reflection faintly visible in the glass . The light source comes entirely from Earth's reflected sunlight, demonstrating how powerful natural illumination can appear in space .

Consumer Technology Meets Deep Space Exploration

On April 1, 2026, Artemis II launched on a nearly 10-day voyage around the Moon, marking the first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft in over fifty years. The Artemis II mission highlights how modern consumer technology continues to support space exploration efforts , with smartphones becoming valuable tools for documenting historic moments.

According to Commander Reid Wiseman, videos are captured with 8x zoom, comparable to what the human eye can see and taken on an iPhone 17 Pro Max . The phone's computational photography auto-adjusted, stabilizing the slow orbital pan at 24,000 mph , demonstrating remarkable technical capabilities in the harsh environment of space.

Historic Perspectives from the Lunar Far Side

During the mission, the Artemis II astronauts became the first people to see much of the lunar far side — the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth — with their own eyes . On April 6, Commander Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen completed a historic hour-long lunar flyby .

Wiseman's Earthset video is a nod to the iconic Earthrise photo taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, though the Apollo 8 photo showed Earth re-emerging into view, rather than disappearing . The 53-second clip, captured April 6 through Orion's docking hatch, has racked up 11 million views .

The Future of Lunar Exploration

The agency is focused next on the Artemis III mission, which is expected to launch in mid-2027, with plans for the crew to stay in low-Earth orbit to conduct technology demonstrations with commercially built moon landers from SpaceX or Blue Origin . NASA intends for one of those landers to dock with the Orion capsule in lunar orbit, then carry astronauts to the lunar surface .

This stunning iPhone footage represents more than just a technological achievement—it captures a profound moment of human perspective from deep space. As commercial space travel expands and future missions push deeper into the solar system, consumer technology will likely play an increasingly important role in documenting humanity's greatest adventures beyond Earth.