NASA has shared a stunning image (above) captured by the crew of the Artemis II mission as they head toward the moon. It shows a tiny Earth, mostly in darkness and surrounded by the inky blackness of space.
The photo was taken on day four of the Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts fly around the moon before returning to Earth. On Monday, the crew — NASA’s Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, along with Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency — will loop around our nearest neighbor, setting a new flight record in the process.
“One last look at Earth before we reach the moon,” NASA said in a post on X that shared the incredible photo.
“This view of the Earth was captured on April 5, the fourth day of the Artemis II mission, from inside the Orion spacecraft. The four astronauts will reach their closest approach of the moon tomorrow, April 6.”
Tantalizingly for the crew, the Orion spacecraft is expected to pass within about 4,070 miles of the moon, giving astronauts their closest view of the cratered, rugged terrain in more than five decades.
But that’s not all. On Monday afternoon, shortly before 2 p.m. ET, the Artemis II crew will surpass the greatest distance from Earth ever reached by humans, set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 when it flew 248,655 miles from our planet. Then, about five hours later, the Artemis II astronauts will reach their farthest point from Earth, 252,760 miles, setting a new record.
The 10-day mission, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, has so far been going mostly to plan. One hiccup, however, concerns the onboard toilet, which has been experiencing intermittent problems during the flight.
The latest issue has been caused by what engineers believe may be ice blocking a pipe that expels the astronauts’ urine into space. It means that for now, the crew members are having to use special bags to collect and store their liquid waste. Fortunately, the toilet still works for number-2 waste, which is dealt with differently.
Artemis II marks the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft and the second Orion flight overall. The mission is designed to test the spacecraft’s systems in preparation for more complex missions like Artemis IV, which will endeavor to return humans to the lunar surface after an absence of more than five decades.