Cape Canaveral, Florida – Artemis II astronauts have captured the brilliant beauty of our blue planet as they get closer and closer to the Moon.
NASA released the first images of the crew on Friday, a day and a half after the first lunar mission by an astronaut in more than half a century.
The first photo, taken by Commander Reid Wiseman, shows a curved portion of the Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans crowned by swirls of white clouds.
As of mid-morning Friday, Wiseman and his crew were 145,000 kilometers from Earth and rapidly approaching the Moon, with another 270,000 kilometers to go. They should arrive at their destination on Monday.
The three Americans and the Canadian will orbit the Moon in their Orion capsule, make a U-turn and return home without stopping. On Thursday night they fired up Orion’s main engine, which put them on their way.
They are the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.