See the first photo of Earth from NASA's moon-bound Orion spacecraft
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – NASA's Artemis I mission propelling an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a trajectory to the moon kicked off Wednesday morning at 1:47 a.m. EST with the launch of the agency's powerful Space Launch System rocket.
During its outbound lunar journey, Orion captured an incredible view of Earth about nine hours after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The last time a translunar coast photograph of the Earth was captured and shared from a crew capsule was during NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the final Apollo-era crewed mission to the moon.
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A view from inside Orion
NASA shared the first look from inside the Orion spacecraft, which was outbound to the moon. Inside was a mannequin outfitted in the Orion Crew Survival suit that will be worn by astronauts on future Artemis crewed missions to the moon.
First view of Earth from Orion
NASA shared the first view of the Earth captured by a camera mounted on one of Orion's solar array wings, when the spacecraft was over 57,000 miles away from Earth. It's the first Earth-view image from a human-rated spacecraft outbound to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
"The views of our blue marble in the blackness of space now capturing the imagination of a new generation – the Artemis generation," NASA spokesperson Sandra Jones said during the livestream of the event.
The Artemis I launch will send an empty capsule around the moon for the first time in 50 years. This first test flight is expected to last four to six weeks and will end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. If the mission is successful, four astronauts will accompany the next mission in 2024, with hopes to land two astronauts on the moon a year or two afterwards.
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza, Paste BN