On their way around the moon, the Artemis II crew had time to capture some spectacular photos of our blue planet. NASA has started sharing photos, including the photo above, which shows an amazing view of Earth from the window of the Orion capsule.
Artemis II commander Reed Wiseman overcame the crew’s problems with Microsoft Outlook and the toilet to capture the photos. He took the above photo after the spacecraft completed its translunar injection burn on April 2.
Meanwhile, this second photo offers a clever composition for a fuller view of our planet. If you look carefully, you can see two auroras: one at the top right and the other at the bottom left. As Earth eclipses the Sun, the diffuse glow of zodiacal light (bottom right) is easy to recognize.
At the time of publication, Artemis II is more than 105,000 miles from Earth. In a 10-day journey, a crew of four will revolve around the Moon and then return. Serving as a large-scale testbed for future deep space travel, the mission is NASA’s first mission to the Moon since the Apollo program. However, this time the crew would not land; This will have to wait for Artemis IV, currently planned for 2028.
Reed Wiseman/NASA
<a href