NASA’s Artemis I mission propelling an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a trajectory to the moon kicked off Wednesday morning, Nov. 16, at 1:47 a.m. EST with the lspanunch of the spangency’s powerful Spspance Lspanunch System rocket.

During its outbound lunar journey, Orion captured incredible views of the Earth about nine hours after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The last time a translunar coast photograph of the Earth was captured and shared from a crew capsule was during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the final Apollo-era crewed mission to the moon. 

 A view from inside Orion

11:25 a.m. ET: NASA shares the first look from inside the Orion spacecraft which is outbound to the moon. Inside is a mannequin outfitted in the Orion Crew Survival suit that will be worn by astronauts on future Artemis crewed missions to the moon. 

First view of Earth from Orion

11:18 a.m. ET: NASA shares the first view of the Earth captured by a camera mounted on one of Orion’s solar array wings. It’s the first Earth-view image from a human-rated spacecraft outbound to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Orion is over 50,000 miles from Earth

11:02 a.m. ET: Over nine hours after liftoff the Orion spacecraft has traveled over 50,000 miles away from Earth. NASA anticipates sharing “breathtaking” images from the spacecraft shortly. 

Orion outbound to the moon

10:53 a.m. ET: NASA’s Artemis I uncrewed Orion capsule is en route to the moon. The first views of the Earth from cameras mounted on the spacecraft are expected shortly. Stay tuned.