Nasa astronauts begin journey home having collected eagerly awaited images of impact craters and ridges
Nasa’s Artemis II astronauts have described the powerful emotion felt when soaring over the moon as they photographed impact craters, cracks and ridges and began their long journey home.
Among the eagerly awaited images captured by the crew, who worked in pairs at the Orion capsule windows, are those of the Earth rising from behind the moon, a solar eclipse and parts of the 590-mile (950km) wide Orientale impact basin that have never been observed with the naked eye.
Further images are expected to shed light on the brown, green and orange-hues the astronauts reported on the greyish landscape, and possibly faint layers of moondust that may have been visible during the Earthrise.
Having swung around the far side of the moon on Monday, a manoeuvre that cut the crew’s contact with mission control for 40 minutes, the four astronauts are now hurtling back to Earth. The quarter of a million mile return trip is due to end in a splashdown near the coast of San Diego at 8.07pm on Friday US eastern time.
