'Hello, World': NASA shares first photos of Earth taken by Artemis II
The Orion spacecraft will leave Earth's orbit on April 5.
NASA has shared the first photos taken by astronauts on their journey to the moon aboard the Artemis II rocket.
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Reid Wiseman, Commander of the Artemis crew, took a photo of the Earth after the Orion spacecraft completed its translunar injection burn - the manoeuvre that will launch the Orion towards the moon.
The photo shows the Earth eclipsing the Sun, and there are two auroras in the top right and bottom left of the image, as well as zodiacal light in the bottom right where the Sun's rays are just visible.
The crew are now closer to the moon than Earth, and are on schedule to fly-by on Monday. They say they can now see features on the moon that can't be viewed from Earth.
During a press conference held remotely with reporters on Tuesday, the crew said they were blown away by the view of the Earth.
Jeremy Hansen, the sole Canadian astronaut on the flight, said: "We were out there at 60,000km. We came back to within 200km of the planet, and it just felt like we were falling out of the sky back to Earth."
Hansen also praised Hollywood star Ryan Gosling's recent role in space-action flick Project Hail Mary. He said: "Ryan did a great job" and that the crew thought the movie was "really uplifting and inspiring".
The Artemis II launch coincided with the release of the blockbuster. Gosling had sent a pre-recorded video message to the astronauts, wishing them luck for their journey to the moon.
Hansen is on his first-ever spaceflight and said that: "I didn't do anything by myself in life; I did it with a team around me."
"It's important that you find what you're passionate about, but you share those passions with others because you're gonna find that they're going to help you to achieve them," he added.
The press conference was held via downlink event, a live video link between Earth and the Orion capsule.
The interior of the capsule that houses the astronauts has a volume of 330 cubic feet - roughly the size of two minivans.
On Tuesday night NASA cancelled Orion's "outbound trajectory correction burn", a procedure that would adjust the spacecraft's approach to the moon, as the capsule was on the correct flight path.
Two further correction burns are scheduled in case the capsule drifts off course.