Before the World Ends, At Least We Got to See the Dark Side of the Moon Again

To think: our class of the human race will be the only ones to see both the dark side of the moon and the downfall of the Mormon Wives in the same lifetime.

By Claire Guinan  |  April 7, 2026 | 5:18pm
Photo: NASA
Before the World Ends, At Least We Got to See the Dark Side of the Moon Again

As Trump escalates the war in Iran, threatening that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” and probably launching the world into nuclear fallout, at least, in the brief 4.5 billion-year journey through this universe, a few more humans got to lay their eyes on the dark side of the moon—which, actually, may be some sort of omen. To think: our class of the human race will be the only ones to see both the dark side of the moon and the downfall of the Mormon Wives in the same lifetime.

Since the moon rotates in its orbit around Earth, the same face of the moon is always positioned towards us, which has been the case since the moon first formed a few billion years ago. But this week, the astronauts on Artemis II became the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th beings to ever see the elusive “dark side of the moon” with their own eyes. And they took pics! Spoiler alert: it’s just more moon.

Technically, both NASA and former Soviet satellites have photographed the dark side before, and China’s Chang’e 4 mission landed on the moon’s far side in 2019. Twenty-four Apollo mission astronauts—all American (Go U.S.A?)—had previously laid eyes on it. But still, pretty cool that four more humans got to see it before the end of civilization, I guess.
 
As the Orion capsule traveled into the “dark” bounds, the communication signal was lost for about 40 minutes. During this time, they set the record for traveling farther into space than any humans before (252,756 miles!), and also got front-row seats to the moon eclipsing the sun. 

In their lunar passage, the Astronauts also discovered an unnamed crater on the moon’s near side, which they dedicated to Astronaut mission commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Jeremy Hansen told Mission Control. “It’s a bright spot on the moon, and we would like to call it Carroll.” Didn’t think the moon was gonna make me cry today, but shit, a lot is going on!

Perhaps we were never meant to see the moon’s dark side, and by doing so, have opened a portal into the timeline where terrestrial life goes by the wayside. Damn our insatiable thirst for knowledge.

However much doom we may be feeling here on Earth, we can always look up to the moon, who, after all these years, has never strayed from our side. And if there’s nothing else I can say to cheer you up today, consider showing the photos of the dark side of the moon to your cat, so they can become the first cats in history (that we know of) to see the dark side of the moon.

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