Artemis II has begun its four-day trip back to Earth following its historic mission to the moon and back.
The mission was NASA's first return to the moon since the Apollo missions of the 1970s and saw the Artemis II surpass Apollo 13's distance record of 248,655 miles.
They are scheduled to land in the Pacific on Friday.
As they sailed around the moon, the astronauts were greeted with the voice of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who recorded his message two months before his death last August.
"Welcome to my old neighborhood," said Lovell, who also flew on Apollo 8, humanity's first lunar visit. "It's a historic day and I know how busy you'll be, but don't forget to enjoy the view."
The Artemis II crew ducked behind the moon more than halfway through the lunar flyby. During the 40-minute communication blackout, they made their closest approach to the moon — 4,067 miles — and reached their maximum distance of 252,756 miles.
"It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable," Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed ahead of the flyby.
He challenged "this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived."
Some peaks were so bright, pilot Victor Glover noted, that they looked as though they were covered in snow. Besides photographing the scenes with high-powered Nikon cameras, the astronauts also pulled out their iPhones for some impromptu shots.
Artemis II is NASA's first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year's Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth.
The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon's south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.
While Artemis II may be taking Apollo 13's path, it's most reminiscent of Apollo 8 and humanity's first lunar visitors who orbited the moon on Christmas Eve 1968 and read from the Book of Genesis.
Glover said flying to the moon during Christianity's Holy Week brought home for him "the beauty of creation." Earth is an oasis amid "a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe" where humanity exists as one, he observed over the weekend.
"This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we've got to get through this together," Glover said, clasping hands with his crewmates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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