The glow on the bottom right of the image is “zodiacal light,” a faint glow also referred to as “false dawn,” that appears due to rays of light being scattered by interplanetary dust as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

Artemis II is NASA's first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year's Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon's south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.

NASA on Tuesday released a historic image of Earth dipping below the lunar horizon, more than 57 years after an iconic "Earthrise" image was captured by an Apollo 8 astronaut.

As four astronauts get set to blast off on humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than half a century, comparisons between Apollo and NASA’s new Artemis program are inevitable.

Artemis II splashdown time and where it’ll land as astronauts approach grand moon finale - All eyes are on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield

The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II came screaming back at 36,174 feet (11,026 meters) per second — or 24,664 mph (39,693 kph) — just shy of the record before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.

For the first time in more than half a century, NASA is preparing to send astronauts back into deep space, not just to low Earth orbit but around the Moon itself. Artemis II, the second flight in the Artemis program, will carry four people on a roughly 10 ...