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08-04-2026
WASHINGTON: Artemis II astronauts have crossed the halfway point between Earth and the moon as they race towards a planned lunar flyby, and NASA has released the first images of Earth captured from inside the Orion spacecraft.
As the astronauts settled down to sleep early on Sunday after rounding off the fourth day of their 10-day mission, they were nearly 322,000km (200,000 miles) from Earth and 132,000km (82,000 miles) from the moon, according to NASA’s online dashboard.
The United States space agency published photographs taken from the capsule, including a full view of Earth showing a glowing orb of deep blue oceans and swirling clouds. The four-person crew is expected to swing around the far side of the moon early this coming week, a manoeuvre not attempted in more than 50 years.
The next major milestone in the journey is expected overnight from Sunday into Monday US time when the crew is due to enter what NASA calls the “lunar sphere of influence”, the point at which the moon’s gravity exerts a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.
If all goes to plan, Orion’s sweep around the moon could see the astronauts travel farther from Earth than any human in history.
Artemis II is part of NASA’s efforts to return to the lunar surface on a regular basis with the eventual goal of establishing a permanent base on the moon that could serve as a Launchpad for deeper space exploration.
‘You look beautiful’
The mission is now on its third day out of a planned 10-day flight.
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.
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.
A flyby is when a spacecraft flies around a planet or the moon without landing, using the object’s gravity to change direction and head back the way it came.
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).
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’s shared identity, said Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut to make the journey beyond low-Earth orbit.
“Trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful,” Glover told media, describing the view of Earth from space. “From up here, you look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us, no matter where you’re from or what you look like. We’re all one people.
“We call amazing things that humans do ‘moonshots’ for a reason. This mission brought us together and showed us what we can do … when we bring our differences together and use all the strengths to accomplish something great.”
The three American astronauts and one Canadian will fly around the moon in the Orion capsule before looping back toward Earth without landing. The spacecraft was set on its course after the crew fired Orion’s main engine on Thursday night.
“I knew that that is what we would see,” mission specialist Christina Koch, the first woman to journey around the moon told ABC News in a video call on Thursday night “but there’s 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’re going to get similar views of the moon. (Int’l News Desk)
