NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft has begun transmitting its first images from deep space, offering a view of Earth from farther away than any crewed mission has traveled since Apollo.
The Orion capsule lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, carrying Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day voyage around the moon — the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. Koch and Glover will set new spaceflight records for women and people of color once Orion surpasses the International Space Station’s altitude of roughly 250 miles above Earth.
When Artemis I completed the same journey in November 2022 without a crew, the Orion spacecraft began transmitting striking views of Earth shortly after launch, drawing widespread attention. This time, four astronauts are aboard.
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NASA is livestreaming views from Artemis II’s spacecraft throughout the journey. The stream description says the broadcast begins with the ascent into space and conclude shortly before returning to Earth.
The crew is expected to set a new distance record for human spaceflight on Flight Day 6, when Orion passes behind the moon. During that 45-minute communications blackout, the astronauts will photograph the lunar far side — terrain that has never been directly observed by human eyes. Those images would mark another first for the mission.
Orion is expected to splash down April 10 off the coast of San Diego, where U.S. Navy teams will recover the crew and capsule.