The mission so far: Flawless and beautifulpublished at 18:18 BST
Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent
Artemis II roared off the launch pad and into history on Thursday – and so far, the mission is doing exactly what Nasa hoped for.
“Flawless” was the word that the head of the Artemis programme, Dr Lori Glaze, used.
And the sights have not failed to astonish us all, from the moment the SLS rocket turned the Florida evening into a wall of white flame and thunder.
After a day in Earth orbit, Orion’s training wheels came off and the spacecraft with its four astronauts were blasted into an elliptical orbit around the Moon and back – seeing and sharing with us sights that had not been seen for more than fifty years.
Notably the view of the whole Earth from space: a stunning view of our planet hanging in the blackness of space.
The entire Earth hangs luminous in the blackness of space: deep blue oceans and swirling white clouds and bright atmosphere give it the appearance of a shimmering jewelled marble. An echo of the first colour image of Earth taken by the astronauts of Apollo 8 in 1968.
Back then the image that provided a moment of hope and optimism to a divided and war-torn world, and perhaps the new picture and the mission so far might have the same effect, especially as the best is yet to come with more spectacular images as the Orion space hurtles towards to its destination.
Image source, NASA
