Florida [US], April 5: The four astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission to the moon are more than halfway to their destination and sent back the first images of Earth taken during their voyage on Saturday.
"You look amazing. You look beautiful," NASA astronaut Victor Glover said from the Orion capsule. The images show the Earth as a blue ball with white streaks against a black backdrop.
Glover, his US colleagues Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are the first humans to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. They lifted off on Wednesday aboard the Orion capsule using the Space Launch System rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. Around 24 hours later, they left Earth's orbit using a special manoeuvre.
After another day, they have now completed about half of the journey. During this time, the astronauts have been carrying out numerous scientific tests and training tasks.
Artemis 2 builds on the experience gained from the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in 2022. The crew is expected to spend about 10 days in space aboard the Orion capsule and fly around the moon before the capsule is due to splash down in the sea back on Earth.
For Glover, Koch and Wiseman, it is their second flight into space, while it is Hansen's first. Koch is the first woman on board a NASA moon mission, Glover the first non-white person and Hansen the first Canadian. The path of Artemis 2 is a giant figure of eight around the Earth and moon, with the four travelling a total of more than 2.3 million kilometres.
Source: Qatar Tribune
