The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, a day and a half into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of earth in one of the capsule’s windows.

The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds.

A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

NASA says an image of the earth taken from the Orion spacecraft’s window shows a green aurora. Photo: AAP 

Wiseman and his crew were 145,000km from earth and quickly gaining on the moon with another 270,000km to go.

The crew of four will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping.

The so-called translunar ignition came on Thursday night, 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week.

Their Orion capsule bolted out of Earth orbit right on cue and chased after the moon nearly 400,000km away.

It was the first such engine firing for a space crew since Apollo 17 set out on that era’s final moonshot on December 7, 1972. NASA said preliminary reports indicate it went well.

“Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon,” said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

He said they were glued to the windows to take in the view, calling it “phenomenal”.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASA’s grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

The crew will become the farthest humans have ever travelled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970.

They also may become the fastest during their re-entry at flight’s end on April 10.

—AAP