Planet Earth Views | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

Planet Earth Views | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

In this image 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."

In this image of Earth taken by the Artemis II crew, we can see the electric lights of human activity. In the lower right, sunlight illuminates the limb of the planet.

🌍The Artemis II crew captured beautiful, high-resolution images of our home planet during their journey to the Moon. As NASA astronaut Christina Koch put it: "You guys look great."

NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon. After the mission management team polled “Go” Thursday, April 2, 2026, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon.

Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist onboard, was successfully launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 1, 2026, for the Artemis II Mission from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA’s Artemis II Mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft.

Artemis II Mission coverage on:

NASA+: https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-events/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nasa

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASA/

X: https://x.com/nasa

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nasa

Check the Artemis blog for updates: 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

Image Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: April 3, 2026

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