NASA's Artemis reaches moon, clicks image of 'pale blue dot' earth

NASA's Artemis spacecraft has reached the lunar surface after finally taking off from Earth last week.

According to a report by BBC, the Artemis 1 swept 80 miles above the surface of the moon and will now begin to entera larger orbit. The vehicle carrying Artemis 1, Orion capsule, was out ofcontact for about 30 minutes during this maneuvering that began at 12:44GMT.

NASA officials have said that so far the mission has "exceeded expectations" since its launch last week. At the time of the fly-by, Orion was 328 miles above the moon travelling at a speed of 5,023 mph. The spacecraft also sent back the images of Earth as seen from 230,000 miles away, looking like a'pale blue dot' in the black and mightyuniverse.

NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville talked about this milestone, "This is one of those days that you'vebeen thinking about and dreaming about for a long, long time. "This morning,we just saw the Earth set behind the Moon as we take the next human-rated vehiclearound the Moon, preparing to bring humans back there within a few years. This is a game-changer."

It is for the first time that a space capsule has successfullycompleted a fly-by of the moon in half a century. Artemis 1 is an uncrewed mission designed to test NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft before astronauts can be sent on it for a future mission.

If this mission is successful, then it will be followed by a human trip tothe moon in 2024 on Artemis 2 mission. Artemis 2 could also see the first woman and the first person of colour leading the mission and setting foot on the moon.