NASA released thousands more photos from Artemis II. Here are 9 of the best.

NASA released thousands of additional photos this weekend from last month’s Artemis II mission around the Moon.

The collection of more than 12,000 images includes new views and close-ups not seen since the flight. Among the photos are spectacular perspectives of the Moon’s rough, pockmarked surface, showing its countless craters, as well as portraits of Earth flashing in the distance during the astronauts’ lunar flyby.

Here’s a small sample from the recently released trove of images.

The Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – launched a 10-day mission around the Earth and the Moon on April 1. It was NASA’s first lunar mission in more than 50 years and the first time that NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule carried human passengers.

The mission took the astronauts further from Earth than any human has before. During their lunar flyby on April 6, Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen circled the far side of the Moon, observing parts of the surface that had never before been seen by the human eye. The hidden side is not visible from Earth because it permanently faces our planet.

During the approximately seven-hour flyby, the astronauts made detailed observations of the irregular topography along the moon’s terminator, the dividing line between its illuminated side and its dark side.

They also studied craters formed when large objects collided with the moon billions of years ago.

NASA said Artemis II images of craters, ridges and ancient lava flows on the Moon’s surface could help scientists better understand its topography and how it formed.

The astronauts also became the first to observe a solar eclipse from the Moon. Their photos showed a dark moon as the sun slipped behind it, with only the sun’s bright outer atmosphere visible at the edges.

The astronauts returned to Earth on April 10 and landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

The Artemis II mission was designed to test NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule ahead of a planned Moon landing in 2028. NASA aims to launch the next mission in its Artemis program, Artemis III, next year to test additional technologies, including at least one new vehicle, needed to achieve that Moon landing.

Ultimately, NASA hopes to establish a long-term presence on the Moon by building a base on the surface.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com