Artemis II’s astronauts capture Earth’s blue beauty

The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, one-and-a-half days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by Commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows.

The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA. “It’s great to think that with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image,” said NASA’s Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added that the mission was going well.

As of late Friday afternoon, Wiseman and his crew were more than 180,000 km from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 240,000 km to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.

The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping.