Artemis II astronauts capture earth’s blue beauty

Artemis II astronauts captured the bright beauty of our blue planet as they approached the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, a day and a half after the astronauts set foot on the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.

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

The second shows the entire world with oceans covered by tendrils of white clouds swirling overhead.

Even a green aurora glows, according to NASA.

Wiseman and his team were 145,000 km away from Earth and were rapidly approaching the Moon with another 270,000 km to go.

They should reach their destination on Monday.

In this image, also taken from the Orion capsule, we see that the distinction between day and night, known as the terminator, cuts across the Earth. Whether we are awake or dreaming, we are all on this planet together. pic.twitter.com/NhtD2DjBYQ— NASA (@NASA) April 3, 2026

The four-person crew will circle the moon in their Orion capsule, make a U-turn, and then return directly home without stopping.

They fired Orion’s main engine on Thursday night US time, which put them on course.