Artemis II’s four astronauts are currently on Day 7 of their 10-day mission to the moon. On Day 6, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch set a record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth.
But before they blasted off into space, back in April 2025, the astronauts took part in an “astronaut film school” through National Geographic’s collaboration with NASA on Artemis II. The publication’s photo and video editors visited the astronauts on a Houston-based Orion mockup to teach them about how to best film their mission with Nat Geo cameras, audio and other tech.
We got a behind-the-scenes look at that astronaut film school.
Watch this: NASA’s Artemis II Breaks Record With Trip Around The Moon
This is part of NASA and National Geographic’s Space Act Agreement, under which they collaborated on compact, lightweight audiovisual hardware for use inside Orion.
The following clips are just a taste. Nat Geo will soon release a documentary special that goes in greater depth. In the meantime, you can learn more about how the astronauts will rest (spoiler: one will sleep like a bat):
Even entering the spacecraft requires extra attention:
While the toilet, or “hygiene bay,” is in the floor of the vessel, Mission Specialist Christina Koch says you wouldn’t know it once you’re in there. However, the astronauts do have to use handholds and, surprisingly, hearing protection because the toilet is so loud:
Astronauts need to get in their workouts, too. The flywheel exercise device can be used with a handheld bar attached to a strap or a harness, and thanks to zero gravity, whoever is exercising will be doing so toward the craft’s docking tunnel. Since it’s over the toilet, someone could be using the bathroom while a fellow astronaut works out above them.
Though Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen are more than halfway through their mission, we’re still secretly hoping for a visual showing what it looks like when a human can sleep upside down, bat-style.
Check out CNET’s live coverage of the launch of the Artemis II mission.
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