NASA shares stunning Artemis II snap of Earth - sparking ‘group photo’ memes | indy100

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

If you ever wanted to get that selfie with your favourite celebrity, then NASA's Artemis II mission might have offered an amusing workaround, what with social media users joking that incredible new photos taken by astronauts onboard the Orion spacecraft constitute a “group photo” of Earth’s citizens.

Artemis II is well underway after the rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday (1 April) , with astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on board.

Orion will carry out two orbits of Earth before venturing around the Moon in a figure-of-eight pattern as part of the 10-day mission, spanning a total distance of 685,000 miles.

It’s already encountered a couple of snags, though, as the astronauts have faced issues with Microsoft Outlook and their toilet.

But in among everything else going on in the spacecraft, the crew did manage to take some stunning photos of Earth from space, which has prompted social media users to suggest the image is “kinda like a group photo”:

“Take it again I blinked,” quipped one account:

Another joked: “This is an invasion of my privacy @NASA. I’m clearly naked in the photo delete this”:

Then there were those who claimed the photo shows them and their favourite celebrity “in the same picture”, such as Wicked star Ariana Grande:

“First photo with Lewis Hamilton, kinda nervous,” tweeted one user:

This isn’t the only photo taken from the Orion spacecraft which has been shared by NASA, with one snap capturing a picture of Earth at night:

And another showing our planet visible through the window of the capsule:

Pretty cool.

Why not read…?

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.