Photographs of Earth taken from the Orion spacecraft en route to the Moon.



The Artemis II mission's Orion spacecraft

was launched on April 2, 2026, Japan time. The Artemis II mission plans to perform a lunar flyby, and as of the time of writing, the Orion spacecraft is still flying towards the moon. Photos of Earth taken from the Orion spacecraft have been released on NASA's official website.

Journey to the Moon - NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/journey-to-the-moon/

Thinking of You, Earth - NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/thinking-of-you-earth/

The following photograph was taken by Reed Wiseman aboard the Orion spacecraft. The blue Earth is visible through the spacecraft's window. This photograph was taken on April 2, 2026. Please note that the photos in this article have been resized for publication; clicking on each photo will allow you to view the original, larger-sized images released by NASA.



A photograph taken by a window.



A blue Earth. The African continent is visible.



The global photograph of Earth also contains Exif data, revealing that a Nikon D5 was brought aboard the spacecraft to take the picture. The shutter speed was 1/4 second and the ISO sensitivity was 51,200, suggesting that the Earth was photographed in a dark state using high sensitivity and a long exposure to capture it brightly.



NASA has also released photos with different levels of brightness. You can see scattered lights on the ground. The area in the lower right, illuminated by sunlight, glows in a ring shape.



A photograph clearly showing the Terminator Line (the boundary between day and night).



NASA's official X account also has a post comparing the current photo with one taken in 1972.




Furthermore, Mr. Wiseman also posted an emotional message from space saying, 'There are no words.'




The current location of the Orion spacecraft and its distance to the Moon can be checked using NASA's tracker . As of the time of writing, it is flying at a distance of 227,814 miles (approximately 366,631 kilometers) from Earth, and its distance to the Moon is 47,123 miles (approximately 75,837 kilometers).



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