The crew were about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometres) from Earth and were quickly closing in on the moon.

The new Artemis II images — coupled with initial shots of the spacecraft hurtling through Earth's orbit, surrounded by glittering, galactic ice — have rendered much of the public awestruck, feeds flooding over with an overwhelming sense of emotion as the astronauts look back at our home.

NASA's latest photos from the Artemis II mission show Earth in stunning details as the astronauts near a milestone distance of 100,000 miles away.

The windows on the Orion spacecraft are already dirty. The four astronauts aboard Artemis II spend so much time pressing their faces against the glass to stare back at their home planet that mission commander Reid Wiseman actually radioed Houston to ask for window-cleaning procedures.

One photo of Earth, taken Thursday by Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman from the Orion window, shows the planet backlit, with auroras visible at the top right and bottom left, Lakiesha Hawkins, deputy director for NASA’s Artemis program, said Friday during a news conference.

Astronauts from the historic moon mission 'Artemis II' have released the first high resolution picture of our home planet Earth captured from their spacecraft. The picture showed the Earth eclipsing the Sun with zodiacal light visible in the background.

The snap was taken aboard the Orion capsule by its commander, Reid Wiseman, as the crew head towards the Moon.

On Friday morning, NASA shared a partial view of our bright blue planet as captured by Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander. Earth, swathed in swirling clouds, is shown rising through a window on the Orion capsule in which the crew is to journey around the moon.

A new immersive experience in Atlanta is giving people the chance to step inside the International Space Station without ever leaving Earth.