Jonathan Serri

The Artemis 2 mission is now closer to the moon than it is to the Earth.

And on the way out, the astronauts on board have been sending back some dramatic photos of our home planet.

And when they fly around the far side of the moon on Monday, they're likely to see some features directly with human eyes that previously could only be seen in satellite photos.

After their lunar flyby, the Orion space capsule will essentially free fall back to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, and that is scheduled for late Friday.

Just before the trans-lunar injection, that's that critical rocket burn where they fire the main rocket for about six minutes to leave a relatively low Earth orbit and begin their trajectory to the moon.

They got a warning of a suspected cabin leak.

The astronauts worked with engineers on the ground to troubleshoot.

They determined it was a false alarm, and then they were able to move forward with that critical burn.

The Artemis II astronauts have been sending back dramatic pictures of the Earth.

When they pass behind the far side of the moon on Monday, they're likely to see features previously captured only by satellite images.

Already, they're seeing the moon from a different angle than the rest of humanity.

It includes two American astronauts, one European Space Agency astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut.

They arrive at Kennedy Space Center where they remain under a precautionary quarantine as they prepare for launch early Wednesday.

When they arrive at the ISS, Crew-12 will be greeted by two Russians and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who's been maintaining the U.S.

equipment on the space station by himself since mid-January.

Crew-12 will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The FAA has given Falcon 9 clearance to launch, and they are targeting a liftoff on Wednesday.

Fox's Jonathan Serri with more on that.

It includes two American astronauts, one European Space Agency astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut.

Earlier this weekend, they arrived at Kennedy Space Center, where they remain under a precautionary quarantine as they prepare for launch early Wednesday.