NASA Lunar Mission Crew Begins Return Journey After Setting Distance Record

USA. The crew participating in the current lunar mission of the American national space agency concluded their 10-day journey on Tuesday and has begun the return phase.

Meanwhile, the space agency released the first images captured during the lunar flyby on Monday and announced that the spacecraft is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California, on April 10.

In the first image captured from the spacecraft's window, a faint blue Earth with clouds is visible against the backdrop of the moon's cratered surface. The agency stated that the dark portion of the Earth in the image represents nighttime, while the illuminated part shows the swirling clouds over Australia and the Oceania region. The foreground of the image features craters.

In the second image, the moon is seen completely obscuring the sun from the perspective of the spacecraft. On Monday, the mission broke the record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth. The crew surpassed the previous record of 400,171 kilometers set in 1970.