Artemis II crew share 'extraordinary' views after leaving Earth's orbit

The Artemis II astronauts have shared the “extraordinary things” they’ve witnessed in space as they left Earth’s orbit on their mission to the moon.

The Orion spacecraft is now closer to the moon than Earth, and the crew are on target to reach their destination by Monday, Nasa said.

Jeremy Hansen, the mission’s only Canadian crew member, described feeling like the aircraft was “falling out of the sky back to Earth” when they came back towards the planet for an injection manoeuvre.

“On our first day in space, we saw some extraordinary things. The Earth up close. By the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away again,” Hansen said during a news conference from space.

“Then to come in for that transit or injection, we came all the way back to Earth again.

“We were out there at 60,000km, we came back to within 200km of the planet, and it just felt like we were falling out of the sky back to Earth.”

The astronauts have been testing the spacecraft’s systems in deep space / Credit: Nasa via AP

Hansen, who is on his first ever spaceflight, said it had felt like the Orion was going to hit the Earth because of its proximity, describing the experience as “really phenomenal”.

Fellow astronaut Victor Glover, who is American, also described seeing the “Grand Canyon of the moon” known as the Orientale Basin, which is not visible from Earth.

“We were able to see the entire thing,” he said, adding that the view from the Orion was “already special”.

The crew, who launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday evening, are now over the halfway point to the moon.

An image of the Earth taken by the Artemis II astronauts / Credit: Nasa via AP

They are made up of mission specialist Hansen, pilot Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Christina Koch.

Nasa released the astronaut’s first photos on Friday, with one showing a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows and another depicting the entire globe topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds.

The crew have been “exercising, practicing medical response procedures, and testing the spacecraft’s emergency communications system in deep space”, the space agency said early Saturday morning.