Artemis II’s moon-bound astronauts capture Earth’s brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Artemis II astronauts We captured the magnificent beauty of our blue planet as we got closer and closer closer to the moon.
NASA released the first downlinked images of the crew on Friday, 1.5 days later. first astronaut moon trip more than one 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 world with oceans covered by tendrils of white clouds swirling overhead.
As of midday Friday, Wiseman and his crew were 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from Earth and were rapidly approaching the Moon with 168,000 miles (270,000 kilometers) more to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.
Three Americans and one Canadian will circle the moon in their Orion capsule, make a U-turn, and return home without stopping. They ignited Orion’s main engine and set course on Thursday night.
They are the first lunar rovers since Apollo 17 in 1972.
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