Orion , a capsule that is part of the Artemis 1 mission , managed to capture the Earth and the Moon in the same photograph that will go down in NASA history .
Artemis 1 , the NASA mission that serves as the foundation for the return of humans to the Moon , continues to record some of the most extraordinary images of our planet and its satellite. However, the most recent captured by the 16 cameras installed in the Orion capsule is the best of all because it manages to record both the Earth and the Moon in an impressive photograph that will go down in history.
The image was captured when the spacecraft, sent into lunar orbit by the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket , reached the maximum distance from Earth : about 434,522 kilometers. The capsule became the first designed to be crewed by humans -although in this attempt it only carries mannequins on board- that manages to reach such a distance from our planet, surpassing the Apollo 13 mission of 1970.
Orion surpassed the record of Apollo 13
This historic image recorded the perfectly aligned Earth and Moon from a very different perspective than NASA usually shows . The photograph also includes the frontal zone of Orion while, in the distance, the earth’s satellite can be seen with a brown color and a size somewhat larger than that of our planet due to the angle of the camera.
Because of this, the diameters of the Moon (3,500 km) and the Earth (13,000 km) do not appear to be correct in the photograph. Below, you can see the photo that NASA shared through its official website and its social media accounts .
NASA’s Orion spacecraft captured impressive images
As we highlighted earlier, these are not the only images that the Orion spacecraft has captured during its journey to the Moon ‘s orbit . In the last few weeks since its takeoff was successfully carried out, NASA has not stopped sharing photographs recorded by cameras installed in the capsule of all kinds and from various angles.
For example, the ship managed to get “selfies” in which it is shown posing alone with the Moon or with the Earth . Of course, these photographs serve as a preamble to what astronauts traveling back to Earth’s satellite in 2024 will be able to see and record with their own cameras. All this if the trip is carried out successfully.