For the first time in 50 years, human beings are more than 1,000 miles away from Earth as the historic Artemis II mission continues.
The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — are currently circling the Earth and preparing for a potential translunar injection later today.
As they look toward the moon, NASA also shared a picture looking back at the Earth, which appears as a crescent in the black of space.
While it might look like the moon at first, this picture depicts the Earth as seen from the Orion spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
The picture shared by NASA is a screenshot from the Orion livestream, available via YouTube. It shows part of the Orion spacecraft as it travels around the Earth.
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The picture calls to mind another iconic NASA photograph, known as “Earthrise.”
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Taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on Dec. 24, 1968, the famous “Earthrise” photograph depicts the Earth rising above the ghostly lunar horizon.
The ‘Earthrise’ photograph captured the Earth rising above the surface of the moon.
Credit: Bill Anders / NASA
“Earthrise” is one of the most famous space photographs ever taken. Apollo 8 astronauts were the first to orbit the moon, and thus the first-ever humans to witness Earthrise in person. And like the Apollo 8 astronauts before them, the crew of Orion is aiming for a lunar orbit.
Artemis II astronauts will not set foot on the moon during the planned 10-day lunar mission. However, they could travel further away from home than any human being in history, reaching a distance of 248,700 miles, breaking a record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.
For now, the four-person Orion crew is still in orbit around the Earth, where they reached a maximum height of 46,000 miles. Later today, mission control will decide whether the historic lunar mission is a go or no-go. Should the mission proceed, Orion will leave Earth’s orbit and head toward the moon.
If Orion forges ahead, they’re scheduled to slingshot around the moon on April 6 before returning to Earth on April 10 or 11.
The Artemis II mission is part of a larger plan to establish a crewed lunar base, and potentially even a Martian base in the future.
You can track the progress of the Orion crew via the NASA website or app.
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