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The Artemis II astronauts are now forever intertwined with Apollo 8.
A day after the historic lunar flyaround, NASA on Tuesday released striking photos taken by the U.S.-Canadian crew.
The four astronauts channelled Apollo 8’s famous “Earthrise” shot from 1968 with their own: “Earthset,” showing our planet setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon.
Astronaut William Anders photographed the original “Earthrise” during the Apollo 8 mission on Dec. 24, 1968.
As the first colour photo of Earth taken from space, the image is widely associated with jump-starting the global environmental movement and leading to the creation of Earth Day, an annual event promoting environmental activism and awareness, in 1970.
Another photo captures the total solar eclipse that occurred when the moon blocked the sun from the crew’s perspective.
The three Americans and one Canadian are now headed home, with a splashdown in the Pacific set for Friday.
Apollo 8’s three astronauts became the world’s first lunar visitors, orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve 1968. Their “Earthrise” shot became a symbol of the modern-day environmental movement.
Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, says the first two Artemis missions have set the stage for the next moon landing, a moon base and eventually, human exploration of Mars, missions so challenging that only international co-operation makes them possible.
Artemis II marks NASA’s first return to the moon with astronauts — a critical step toward a lunar landing by another crew in two years.
