The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, a day and a half into the first astronaut moonshot in more than 50 years.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows.

The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds.

A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

Wiseman and his crew were 145,000km from Earth and quickly gaining on the moon with another 270,000km to go.

They should reach their destination on Monday.

The crew of four will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping.

They fired Orion’s main engine on Thursday night, US time, that set them on their course.

While the astronauts will not touch down on the moon, the Artemis II mission paves the way for a future lunar landing and also lays the foundation to send a crew to Mars.

The mission previously had to be postponed by two months because of hydrogen fuel leaks and clogged helium lines.

The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The agency is seeking to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China does in about 2030.

with AP