Artemis II astronauts now closer to the moon than the Earth

The Artemis II crew are now closer to the moon than the Earth, Nasa has said, as the four astronauts completed the third day of their flight to the moon.

“We can see the moon out of the docking hatch right now. It’s a beautiful sight,” said an unnamed member of the crew, which Nasa shared in a post on X on Saturday morning.

By 11am, the Orion spacecraft had travelled more than 152,000 miles (245,000km) away from Earth since its launch on Wednesday.

Nasa released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, one and a half days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by Commander Reid Wiseman showed a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second showed the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to Nasa.

“It’s great to think that, with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image,” said Nasa’s Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added the mission was going well.

The space agency also shared the menu for the trip, which includes tortillas, vegetable quiche, mango salad and barbecued beef brisket. As there is no refrigeration onboard, all meals are carefully selected to remain safe, shelf-stable and easy to prepare.

Wiseman and his crew should reach their destination on Monday.

The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping. They fired Orion’s main engine on Thursday night, which set them on their course.

After mission control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth – complete with northern lights – filled their windows.

“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.

They are the first lunar travellers since Apollo 17 in 1972.