Nasa spacecraft halfway to the Moon as crew send back first images of earth

"The mission continues to perform well overall, and the crew is in great spirits. Currently, the crew is more than 100,000 miles from the Earth and about 150,000 miles to go away from the Moon."

"We continue to learn all about our spacecraft as we operate in deep space with crew for the first time, and it's important to remind ourselves of that as we learn a little bit more day by day."

"As the module passes some 4,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon, the crew will lose communication with the Earth for around 40 minutes."

The Artemis II mission is currently on a trajectory for a lunar flyby, with the crew having traveled over 100,000 miles from Earth. The Orion spacecraft will utilize the Moon's gravity for a return journey. Communication will be lost for about 40 minutes as the module passes beyond the Moon. The mission is testing technologies for long-term lunar exploration and manned missions to Mars. The crew is in good spirits and actively measuring spacecraft systems, including noise levels from the toilet.

Read at Irish Independent