Artemis 2 moon astronauts will try to recreate Apollo 8's historic 'Earthrise' photo during April 6 flyby

Click for next article The original, famous Earthrise image, taken on Dec. 24, 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders. (Image credit: NASA) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Get the Space.com Newsletter Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter On Christmas Eve 1968, the crew of NASA's Apollo 8 moon mission captured the "Earthrise" photograph, which is perhaps the most famous image ever taken from space. Soon, the astronauts of Artemis 2 will try to replicate it during their own flight around the moon. Artemis 2 will perform its flyby around the moon 's far side on Monday (April 6), more than 57 years after Apollo 8 became the first mission to take humans around the moon. During their lunar loop, the Artemis 2 astronauts will aim to recreate the Earthrise image, in the hope that the new photo can have the same unifying effect that the original did. Earthrise was more than simply a photograph. Its depiction of Earth 's blue marble rising in the distance above the barren lunar surface illustrated how fragile our world really is amidst the vastness of space, and how, despite our differences, all of us share one planet. Taken three years into the United States' direct involvement in the Vietnam War, during an era in which environmental concerns were beginning to gain ground, Earthrise became the poster child for anti-war and pro-environment campaigners. The photograph was unplanned and unexpected. Unlike Artemis 2, which will swing around the far side of the moon just once at an altitude that varies between about 4,000 and 6,000 miles (approximately 6,430 and 9,650 kilometers) without entering lunar orbit, the Apollo 8 spacecraft performed 10 orbits of the moon. It was during the fourth orbit, as Apollo 8 emerged from the far side of the moon, that Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders spotted something through the window. "Oh my god, look at that picture over there!" he exclaimed, as recorded in the mission transcript. "There's Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!" Get the Space.com Newsletter Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! Indeed it was. Anders was armed with a Hasselblad camera with a 250mm telephoto lens. He raised it to take a snap. "Hey, don't take that — it's not scheduled," joked Mission Commander Frank Borman beside Anders. Though Borman was joking, it did indicate how strictly scheduled everything they did on the mission was. Anders realized he had a roll of black-and-white film in the camera. Quickly he asked Command Modul