NASA’s four-person Artemis II crew concluded their initial day in space on Thursday by experimenting with photography equipment designed to document Earth’s gradual disappearance as they venture toward lunar orbit.
Speaking to Houston’s mission control while capturing images of his home planet using an iPhone, Commander Reid Wiseman described the challenge: “It’s like walking out back at your house, trying to take a picture of the moon. That’s what it feels like right now trying to take a picture of Earth.”
Located over 40,000 miles from Earth, where our planet looks like a diminishing illuminated sphere, Wiseman explained that photographing from such a vast distance created difficulties when adjusting exposure controls on both his GoPro camera and iPhone.
Mission Specialist Christina Koch shared with ground control her observations of “the beauty that we’re seeing.”
“You can actually make out the coastline of the continent, you can make out rivers because of the sunglare, you can see high thunderclouds … and you can see the South Pole lit up. It’s just phenomenal,” she said.
The expedition has encountered minor technical difficulties, including malfunctions with the spacecraft’s restroom facilities and initial troubles with Wiseman’s attempts to access Microsoft Outlook for email communication. Both issues have since been resolved.
The Artemis II team, which departed from Florida at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday, carries multiple photographic devices aboard their Orion spacecraft for documenting their space journey. Their equipment includes compact GoPro action cameras, iPhones, and professional Nikon cameras—a trusted brand NASA astronauts have utilized on the International Space Station for many years.
The choice to provide the crew with iPhones came from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, a wealthy space traveler who participated in two commercial SpaceX Dragon flights and employed these devices during his own missions, according to NASA representatives.
While NASA hasn’t yet published any crew-captured photographs, the agency plans to share images later during more significant mission milestones. One anticipated shot is an “Earthrise” photograph, reminiscent of the iconic image captured by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders in 1968 as his vessel circled the moon.
On their sixth day, the astronauts will reach approximately 252,000 miles from Earth—the farthest distance humans have ever traveled—where our planet will appear no bigger than a basketball beyond the moon’s dark far side.
The team is approaching a crucial orbital departure point that will propel them from Earth’s orbit onto a moon-bound path starting at 7:49 p.m. ET Thursday. This critical mission phase, called trans-lunar injection, combines the Orion service module’s propulsion system with orbital physics.
Throughout their opening day in space, the astronauts accomplished the first of numerous test goals, including a proximity operations exercise to assess Orion’s navigation capabilities.
Shortly following their successful launch, Koch notified Houston mission control about a red warning light indicating trouble with Orion’s restroom, located in a compact area within the crew compartment—itself only marginally larger than a minivan’s interior. Engineering teams resolved the problem after completing a proximity operations evaluation, NASA reported.
Space toilets are typically challenging to operate but remain crucial for extended missions, with designs differing significantly between spacecraft.
Both the ISS and Orion utilize a $24 million Universal Waste Management System, employing suction to gather waste, converting urine into drinking water, and packaging solid waste in containers that are later ejected into space.
The restroom features a custom-designed funnel and tube for urine collection plus a seat for solid waste. Both components can operate simultaneously, incorporating suggestions from female astronauts, NASA’s website indicates.
In comparison, Apollo mission astronauts from the 1960s and 1970s relied on basic collection bags attached to their bodies, storing waste in onboard storage areas or abandoning them on the lunar surface.
Orion’s toilet design more closely matches traditional bathroom fixtures and remains separated from the main cabin by a small privacy door.
“It’s the one place we can go during the mission where we can actually feel like we’re alone for a moment,” Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency explained in a video last year.
