ISS astronaut spots Artemis 2 moon rocket on the launch pad from space (photo)

A view of the Florida coastline from space, with the dark green land outlined by a thin white strip of beach before a blue ocean. An inset to the right in a white box shows a red arrow pointing to a white space amidst a green circled off area. .

The lone U.S. astronaut currently in space took a picture of NASA's first rocket designed for a human moon mission in more than 50 years.

Artemis 2's rocket, called the Space Launch System, arrived at the launch pad Saturday (Jan. 17) — and may launch to the moon as soon as Feb. 6. From the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Chris Williams captured a view of the rocket coastside at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "If you zoom in on the rightmost launch pad, you can see a shadow just to the left of the center of the pad," Williams said in an X post Monday (Jan. 19). "That shadow is from the rocket (and launch tower) that will soon take four of my friends on a trip around the moon."