NASA released the first photographs from the Artemis II mission on Friday, images of Earth taken by mission commander Reid Wiseman from inside the Orion spacecraft as the four-person crew sped toward a historic lunar flyby, the first by humans in more than 50 years.
The first image shows about one-third of Earth peeking out from behind the Orion spacecraft’s capsule wall and window. In the second, Earth’s full disk is visible with Africa in view, the Iberian Peninsula glimmering near the curve of the horizon, a green aurora at roughly the 1 o’clock position and reflected light giving the planet a pale, glowing appearance.
NASA mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston described the image as a reminder that “no matter how far we go, we are still one world, watching, hoping and reaching higher.”
A second image, also taken from one of the Orion spacecraft’s windows, was described by NASA as a “pale blue dot seen through the crew’s eyes.”
Additional photographs provided by NASA show other views of Earth in the dark of night. In one, two bright lights visible in clouds on the left side of the Earth are lightning strikes, with the aurora borealis faintly visible at the top. Another shows the dividing line of day and night as seen from the spacecraft.
Wiseman, speaking during a downlink event with media, described a moment that stopped all four crew members in their tracks.
“There was a moment about an hour ago where Mission Control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the Earth. And I don’t know what we all expected to see at that moment, but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole. You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said.
Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen echoed the sentiment.
“We are getting just a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth right now lit by the moon,” Hansen said. “Phenomenal. None of us can get to lunch because we’re glued to the window.”
NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four-person crew, commander Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, is on a 685,000-mile, 10-day journey around the moon.
On Thursday evening, Artemis II completed its translunar injection burn, the last major maneuver before the lunar flyby. The Orion spacecraft is now flying on a course for the moon, using the moon and Earth’s gravity to pull it back home. NASA expects the spacecraft to fly by the moon around midday Monday.
The crew will also have the chance to witness a solar eclipse on Day 6 of the mission, with the sun’s corona visible from the crew’s perspective.
The mission’s primary cameras are a pair of Nikon D5 DSLRs, built to withstand the extreme radiation of deep space. The crew also brought a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera aboard, which they are testing as the backbone of the next-generation lunar camera to be used on future Artemis missions.
Artemis II will not land on the lunar surface, but it is setting the stage for Artemis III, which aims to return humans to the moon’s surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA’s long-term Artemis goal is to establish a permanent base near the lunar south pole in the early 2030s. The Daily Planet has been following the mission exclusively through an ongoing interview series with former NASA Flight Director John Curry.
