Artemis II astronauts capture earth's blue beauty

The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet's brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew's first downlinked images on Friday, a day and a half into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of earth in one of the capsule's windows.

The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds.

A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

Wiseman and his crew were 145,000km from earth and quickly gaining on the moon with another 270,000km to go.

They should reach their destination on Monday.

In this image, also taken from the Orion capsule, we see the divide between night and day, known as the terminator, cutting across Earth. Whether awake or dreaming, we're all here on this planet together. pic.twitter.com/NhtD2DjBYQ— NASA (@NASA) April 3, 2026

The crew of four will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping.

They fired Orion's main engine on Thursday night, US time, that set them on their course.