Artemis II Cmdr. Reid Wiseman shares breathtaking photo after splashdown: ‘Impossibly beautiful’

Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman shared his new perspective on the Earth with the crew’s first words since splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

“On the helicopter leaving the ship right now. This planet is impossibly beautiful from every altitude I’ve seen it … surface to 250,000 miles,” Wiseman wrote on X.

The post included a breathtaking photo that showed a cloud-capped sky punctured by rays of sunlight over the Pacific Ocean.

Just 24 hours before this photo was taken, Wiseman and the other crew of the Orion spacecraft were hurtling towards Earth at roughly 24,500 miles per hour.

Follow the latest on NASA’s Artemis II:

• Artemis II will face its most dangerous task yet — safely touching down on Earth
• Artemis astronauts will face big physical challenges as they deal with Earth’s gravity again: ‘Almost impossible to walk in a straight line’
• How to see astronauts off California’s coast in historic Artemis II splash down Friday

The now Earthbound flyers became the farthest humans from our planet ever when they briefly orbited the Moon last week, according to NASA.