Artemis II Crew Shares First High-Resolution Earth Images
NASA has released the initial high-resolution photographs of Earth taken by the Artemis II crew as they journey toward the Moon.
The mission commander, Reid Wiseman, captured these "spectacular" images following the crew's completion of a final engine burn that set their trajectory toward Earth's nearest celestial neighbor.
The first image, titled Hello, World, displays the vast blue expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by a thin atmospheric glow as Earth eclipses the Sun, with green auroras visible at both poles.
In this view, Earth appears upside down, showing the western Sahara and Iberian Peninsula on the left and the eastern part of South America on the right.
NASA identified a bright planet located at the bottom right of the image as Venus.
The photographs were taken after the crew successfully executed a trans-lunar injection burn in the early hours of Friday.
This burn propelled the Orion spacecraft out of Earth's orbit as the four astronauts aboard prepare to travel over 200,000 miles to the Moon.
Artemis II is now following a looping trajectory that will carry the crew around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. This mission marks the first time since 1972 that humans have ventured beyond Earth's orbit.
The crew is expected to pass behind the far side of the Moon on April 6 and return to Earth on April 10.
After completing the burn, the crew were "glued to the windows" capturing images, mission specialist Jeremy Hansen reported to mission control in Houston.
"We are getting a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth, lit by the Moon," he said.
Commander Wiseman later contacted mission control to inquire about cleaning the windows, as the astronauts' eagerness to observe space had left them smudged.
Before leaving Earth's orbit, Wiseman described the difficulty of photographing the planet, comparing it to "trying to take a picture of your house from up close." However, this challenge has now been resolved.
Another image taken by Wiseman depicts Earth divided between night and day, with the boundary known as the terminator clearly visible.
Wiseman also took this picture, titled Artemis II Looking Back at Earth, from one of the Orion spacecraft's four main windows.
Another image taken by the crew shows the divide between night and day, known as the terminator, cutting across Earth.
