The Artemis II astronauts are now forever intertwined with Apollo 8. A day after the historic lunar flyaround, NASA on Tuesday released striking new photos taken by the crew.
The four astronauts channeled Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968 with a powerful photo of Earth setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon.
Another image captures the total solar eclipse that occurred when the moon blocked the sun from the crew’s perspective.
The three Americans and one Canadian are now headed home, with a splashdown in the Pacific set for Friday.
The lunar surface fills the frame in sharp detail, as seen during the Artemis II lunar flyby, while a distant Earth sets in the background.
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, Cmdr. Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen prepare for their journey around the far side of the moon by configuring their camera equipment shortly before beginning their lunar flyby observations.
Orion snapped this high-resolution selfie in space with a camera mounted on one of its solar array wings.
The Artemis II crew captures a portion of the moon coming into view along the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night, where low-angle sunlight casts long, dramatic shadows across the surface.
The Earth draws closer to passing behind the moon in this image captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
