Artemis II’s moon-bound astronauts capture Earth’s brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind

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 NASA via AP

This representation provided by NASA shows a presumption of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from of the Orion spacecraft's model aft completing the translunar injection pain connected April 2, 2026. Photo: NASA via AP

The Artemis II astronauts have captured our bluish planet’s superb quality arsenic they zoom ever person to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s archetypal downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the archetypal astronaut moonshot successful much than fractional a century.

The archetypal photograph taken by commandant Reid Wiseman shows a curved portion of Earth successful 1 of the capsule’s windows. The 2nd shows the full globe with the oceans topped by swirling achromatic tendrils of clouds.

 NASA via AP

This representation provided by NASA shows a downlink representation of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commandant Reid Wiseman wrong the Orion capsule connected Friday, April 3, 2026. Photo: NASA via AP

As of midmorning Friday (April 3, 2026), Mr. Wiseman and his unit were 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from Earth and were rapidly gaining connected the satellite with different 168,000 miles (270,000 kilometers) to go. They should scope their destination connected Monday (April 6, 2026).

The 3 Americans and 1 Canadian volition plaything astir the satellite successful their Orion capsule, bent a U-turn and past caput consecutive backmost location without stopping. They fired Orion's main motor Thursday nighttime that acceptable them connected their course.

They're the archetypal lunar travelers since Apollo 17 successful 1972.

Published - April 03, 2026 09:26 p.m. IST

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