First pictures by Artemis II crew of far side of Moon
You might have seen a sunset before, but how about an Earthset?
- Published
The first pictures taken by the Artemis II astronauts of the far side of the Moon, during their six-hour historic fly-by, have been released.
As part of their 10-day mission the Artemis II astronauts are flying around the Moon and back.
The four astronauts went out of contact with Nasa's team on Earth for forty minutes, as they flew around the part of the Moon not visible from our planet and never visited by humans before.
The Orion spacecraft has now travelled more than 250,000 miles from Earth - a new record for the furthest distance humans have ever travelled into space.
Here are the pictures the astronauts took on their journey behind the Moon.
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This picture of Earth peeking out from behind the Moon was taken three minutes before the Orion spacecraft and its crew went behind the Moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes before emerging on the other side.
During the fly-by the astronauts saw an eclipse - where the Sun's light was blocked out behind the Moon, with only a tiny bit of light visible around the edges.
This picture shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. The Sun's outer atmosphere can be seen peeking out from behind the Moon. Stars that are usually too feint to be visible, because the reflected light from the Moon is so bright, are seen in the image - because the Moon is in shadow.
The Artemis II crew wore special eclipse glasses to protect their eyes during the solar eclipse.
This picture shows the South Pole-Aitken basin - the largest and oldest basin on the Moon - believed to have formed billions of years ago. Roughly 2,500 km across it is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System.
This picture shows astronaut Jeremy Hansen taking pictures during the fly-by using a special camera shroud - which is a special curtain with a hole for the camera lens to pass through - it is used to help prevent light from the cabin from reflecting on the windowpanes and spoiling the pictures.