First photo from far-side of the moon released

The White House released the first photo taken by the Artemis II crew of the far side of the Moon on Tuesday.

“Humanity, from the other side. First photo from the far side of the Moon. Captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon,” the picture, dated April 6, was captioned on a post on X.

The Artemis II astronauts are on their way back to Earth from the moon after going deeper into space than any humans have ever gone before.

The Orion spacecraft travelled a record-breaking 252,756 miles (406,771km) away from Earth on Monday evening, becoming so close to the moon it appeared to them the size of a basketball held at arm’s length, Nasa said.

They also became the first humans to see the far-side of the moon with the unaided eye during the mission as they passed behind it during the lunar flyby.

More to follow…