A few hours after leaving Earth’s orbit, the Artemis II crew looked back and sent home a view that stopped them in their tracks.
NASA on Friday released the first photos of Earth taken by the Artemis II astronauts from the Orion capsule after the crew completed their translunar injection burn. The first image, taken by Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, shows the entire planet from space, with both the Northern and Southern lights visible over the poles.
Zodiacal light, which NASA said is created by sunlight reflecting off dust in the solar system, can also be seen in the bottom right of the image.
“Hello, World,” NASA wrote in the photo caption.
NASA said the image was taken from the Orion capsule window after the crew left Earth orbit. The agency is also providing a livestream of views from Orion as it travels to and around the moon.
In a post on X, NASA described the image this way: “We see our home planet as a whole, lit up in spectacular blues and browns. A green aurora even lights up the atmosphere. That’s us, together, watching as our astronauts make their journey to the Moon.”
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told NASA mission control’s spacecraft communicator that the Artemis II crew was “glued to the window” and “taking pictures” of Earth after breaking out of orbit.
Wiseman described a similar moment in a live conversation with reporters late Thursday night.
“There was a moment, about an hour ago, where mission control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the Earth…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.
NASA also shared another image on X showing a sliver of Earth through the Orion capsule window.
The Artemis II mission is traveling on a trajectory that will take the astronauts around the far side of the moon on Monday before bringing them back toward Earth. NASA said the astronauts aboard the spacecraft are expected to travel farther from Earth than anyone before them, reaching about 252,021 miles, or about 405,589 kilometres, as they pass behind the moon.
The mission is also set to capture unprecedented images of the far side of the moon. NASA said Artemis II will test the flight controllers and procedures needed to safely send astronauts back to the moon for long-duration stays as the agency plans for a future moon base.
“This is a test flight,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CBS News. “This is the opening act in a series of missions that will send astronauts to and from the moon with great frequency as we return to stay.”
The photos arrived as Artemis II continued outbound from Earth, with Orion sending back views of the planet through its windows and NASA streaming those images live.
One of the first images now released shows Earth in full, framed only by the darkness of space, with auroras glowing over both poles and zodiacal light visible at the edge of the shot. Another shows only a narrow slice of Earth through the Orion window.
For now, NASA says the crew is still on course to swing around the far side of the moon on Monday, before heading back toward Earth.
