Astronauts capture Earth en route to Moon

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has published a new photograph of planet Earth taken from space on its X microblog.

“We see our planet as a whole—with striking blue and brown hues. The green aurora even lights up the atmosphere. That’s us—together—following our astronauts’ journey to the Moon,” the post said.

The image was taken by astronauts of the Artemis II mission as they travel toward the Moon.

The Orion spacecraft, carrying four astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis II mission, exited Earth’s orbit on April 3 and is now heading toward its natural satellite.

The Orion spacecraft was launched on April 1 at 18:35 Eastern Time from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of the Artemis II lunar mission. Over 10 days, its crew will fly around the Moon and return to Earth without landing. The Moon is located nearly 400,000 kilometers from Earth. The previous mission to the Moon took place more than 50 years ago, on December 7, 1972, aboard Apollo 17.