{"id":581102,"date":"2026-04-04T05:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581102\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:41:09","slug":"nasa-releases-stunning-first-photos-of-earth-from-artemis-ii-moon-mission-science-and-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581102\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA releases stunning first photos of Earth from Artemis II moon mission | Science and Technology News"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of midmorning Friday, the crew were about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometres) from Earth and were quickly closing in on the moon.<\/p>\n

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Published On 3 Apr 20263 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

NASA has released the first images taken from inside the Artemis II<\/a> Orion spacecraft, where four astronauts are currently travelling on a mission around the moon.<\/p>\n

In a photograph shared on Friday, mission commander Reid Wiseman captured a view of Earth through the capsule\u2019s window. The image shows the planet veiled in sweeping cloud formations, appearing to rise beyond the spacecraft as the crew continues its journey.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

A different image shows the entire globe with the oceans. A green aurora even glows.<\/p>\n

As of midmorning Friday, Wiseman and his crew were 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometres) from Earth and were quickly closing in on the moon with another 160,000 miles (258,000km) to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.<\/p>\n

The three American astronauts and one Canadian will fly around the moon in the Orion capsule<\/a> before looping back toward Earth without landing. The spacecraft was set on its course after the crew fired Orion\u2019s main engine on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that that is what we would see,\u201d mission specialist Christina Koch, the first woman to journey around the moon told ABC News in a video call<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s nothing that prepares you for the breathtaking aspect of seeing your home planet both lit up bright as day and also the moon glow on it at night with a beautiful beam of the sunset and knowing that we\u2019re going to get similar views of the moon. I\u2019m really excited for that. And then, of course, heading home,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u2018You look beautiful\u2019<\/p>\n

The mission is now on its third day out of a planned 10-day flight.<\/p>\n

On the sixth day of the mission is the day the crew fly by the moon. The spacecraft reaches its closest approach, approximately 4,000-6,000 miles (6,450-9,650km) above the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

The astronauts will travel around the far side of the moon, the first humans to journey that far into deep space in more than 50 years. Before that phase, the crew are rehearsing the scientific observations they plan to carry out during the lunar flyby.<\/p>\n

A flyby is when a spacecraft flies around a planet or the moon without landing, using the object\u2019s gravity to change direction and head back the way it came.<\/p>\n

After looping around the moon, the spacecraft will use its gravity to return to Earth, with splashdown expected in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on April 11 at about 00:06 GMT (8:06pm ET, on April 10).<\/p>\n

For the astronauts, the journey is not only a technical mission but also a personal one. Seeing Earth from deep space is a reminder of humanity\u2019s shared identity, said Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut to make the journey beyond low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful,\u201d Glover told ABC, describing the view of Earth from space. \u201cFrom up here, you look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us \u2013 no matter where you\u2019re from or what you look like. We\u2019re all one people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call amazing things that humans do \u2018moonshots\u2019 for a reason. This mission brought us together and showed us what we can do \u2026 when we bring our differences together and use all the strengths to accomplish something great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis handout picture provided by NASA shows a view of a backlit Earth as seen through the Orion spacecraft\u0092s window, photographed by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman [Reid Wiseman\/NASA\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of midmorning Friday, the crew were about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometres) from Earth and were quickly closing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,44,66,8143,306,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-581102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-science-and-technology","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}