(Image: Xinhua News Agency/eyevine)

The blue marble that is Earth looks more fragile than ever in this photograph taken by China’s Chang’e 5-T1 spacecraft as it rounded the far side of the moon.

Chang’e 5-T1 is doing a tour of the moon to test heat-shield technology for a more advanced mission planned for 2017. The spacecraft launched on 23 October and is scheduled to touch down in Inner Mongolia on 1 November local time.

This stunning image is reminiscent of the iconic Earthrise photo taken by William Anders as the Apollo 8 mission orbited the moon in 1968. Japan’s Kaguya probe paid homage to the image in 2007 by capturing HD video of Earth rising above the lunar horizon during its trip.

See more stunning portraits of our planet in our gallery: “Say cheese, earthlings! Shots of our planet from space“.