AFP, Houston

The Artemis 2 astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon yesterday as they sped toward a planned lunar flyby, with Nasa releasing initial images of Earth taken from inside the Orion spacecraft.

Astronaut Christina Koch said the crew had a collective “expression of joy” upon being told of the milestone, which was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after the spacecraft blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Nasa’s online dashboard showed early Saturday that the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts was more than 229,000 kilometres (142,000 miles) from Earth.

The space agency earlier released images from Orion that included a full portrait of Earth, featuring its deep blue oceans and billowing clouds.

The astronauts are due to loop around the Moon early next week -- a feat not accomplished in more than 50 years.