Artemis II's moon-bound astronauts capture Earth's brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind

The Artemis II astronauts have captured Earth's brilliant blue beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon. NASA released the crew's first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century. The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule's windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. As of midmorning Friday, Wiseman and his crew were 90,000 miles from Earth and quickly gaining on the moon with another 168,000 miles to go.