An instantly iconic photograph: Earthset.
The Artemis II crew captured this image yesterday as the Earth dipped behind the Moon during their lunar flyby.
Paralleling the Earthrise image captured by the Apollo 8 crew in December 1968, today’s Earthset image will inspire a new generation of humanity to look up in awe and push space exploration even further.
A new milestone for humankind: The crew of Artemis II are now the farthest any human has ever travelled, reaching a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth.
This surpasses the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by about 4,102 miles.
Good morning, world! 🌎
We have spectacular new high-resolution images of our home planet, all of us looking back through the Orion capsule window at our Artemis II astronauts as they continue their journey to the Moon.
We see our home planet as a whole, lit up in spectacular blues and browns. A green aurora even lights up the atmosphere. That's us, together, watching as our astronauts make their journey to the Moon.
Liftoff.
The Artemis II mission launched from @NASAKennedy at 6:35pm ET (2235 UTC), propelling four astronauts on a journey around the Moon.
Artemis II will pave the way for future Moon landings, as well as the next giant leap — astronauts on Mars.
The weather's looking good for tomorrow's Artemis II launch, and our teams are getting the rocket ready for liftoff!
Read the latest updates on our mission around the Moon: https://t.co/doIjUqa1cx
Note that the story references the likely closure of Goddard Space Flight Center. However other centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, would be at grave risk. These cuts threaten NASA's entire science portfolio across several centers.
A 47% cut to NASA Science.
This could mean entire closure of NASA facilities in various states.
This seems to shift NASA's sole focus to human exploration.
But I don't want American flags on the Moon/Mars if it means giving up the rest of the universe.