Seeing double with the Artemis 2 rocket boosters | Space photo of the day for May 26, 2026

The rocket boosters from NASA’s Artemis 2 mission appear in striking unison in this photograph.

This dual-booster moment was captured following the boosters’ separation from the rocket’s core stage, which you can see on the left, heading off to set the Orion spacecraft on its way around the moon.

What is it?

On April 1, 2026, NASA’s Artemis 2 mission blasted off carrying four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back. The mission sent the crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — to space aboard the Orion spacecraft (named Integrity).

The capsule launched atop NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, a heavy-duty launch vehicle designed for missions just like this that propel humans to the moon.

SLS features two solid rocket boosters that add power behind this massive rocket. In fact, these two boosters provide 75% of the initial thrust that the mission needs to escape Earth’s gravity. But once their fuel is used up, which happened just two minutes and 8 seconds after liftoff on this flight, the boosters’ 16 different separation motors ignite to push the boosters away from the rocket and one another. Ultimately, the boosters fall into the Atlantic Ocean and are discarded.

Why is it incredible?

It is amazing to see these boosters separating so perfectly and elegantly in Earth’s upper atmosphere as the mission travels into space.

The SLS rocket has been a massive undertaking for NASA. But despite all of the time and budget concerns that have plagued the rocket’s reputation over the years, this photograph shows a brilliant execution of separation.

Between the Orion spacecraft seamlessly motoring onward on the left of this image and two boosters mirroring one another on the right, this booster separation is picture perfect.