In a crucial maneuver, NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their spacecraft’s engine, breaking away from Earth’s orbit and heading toward the Moon. The translunar injection burn put four astronauts — three Americans and a Canadian — on the path to the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century since Apollo 17 in 1972. Mission control in Houston confirmed a “good burn.”
The burn occurred about 25 hours after the massive orange-and-white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen reported to mission control around 10 minutes after the thruster firing: “We are getting just a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth lit by the moon right now. Phenomenal.” Hansen said he and his crewmates were glued to the capsule’s windows as they left Earth and added, “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.”
This final major thruster firing leaves the Orion capsule largely under the influence of orbital mechanics for the remainder of the mission. On their first day in space, the astronauts tested cameras and steered the Orion spacecraft; they also reported a minor toilet malfunction and email issues that were later fixed.
The 10-day mission aims to reach the farthest distance humans have ever traveled in space, sending the crew some 252,000 miles (406,000 kilometers) and surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The astronauts will test the Orion spacecraft, designed for deep-space exploration, to help chart the path for a Moon landing planned for 2028 and for future missions to Mars. Artemis II is also the inaugural crewed flight of the SLS, NASA’s new lunar rocket.
The Artemis program includes several milestones, including the first Black astronaut, the first woman and the first non-American to take part in a lunar mission. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will fly to about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) past the Moon before turning back and heading straight home without landing on the lunar surface.
Edited by: Alex Berry
