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NASA’s Artemis II Mission Leaves Earth Orbit for Flight around Moon

For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts on a NASA mission are bound to fly around the Moon after successfully completing a key burn of Orion’s main engine.

With the approximately six-minute firing of the spacecraft’s service module engine on Thursday, known as the translunar injection burn, Orion and its crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen accelerated to break free of Earth’s orbit and began the outbound trajectory toward Earth’s nearest neighbor.

“Today, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans have departed Earth orbit. Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy now are on a precise trajectory toward the Moon. Orion is operating with crew for the first time in space, and we are gathering critical data, and learning from each step,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each milestone we reach marks meaningful progress on the path forward for the Artemis program. While we have eight intensive days of work ahead, this is a big moment, and we’re proud to share it with the world.”

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, sending the four astronauts on a planned 10-day test flight around the Moon and back.

After reaching space, Orion deployed its four solar array wings, enabling the spacecraft to receive energy from the Sun, while the crew and engineers on the ground immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to flight operations to start checking out key systems.

About 49 minutes into the test flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second planned burn by the stage propelled Orion, which the crew named “Integrity,” into a high Earth orbit extending about 46,000 miles above the Earth for about 24 hours of system checkouts. After the burn, Orion separated from the stage, flying free on its own.

The crew then conducted a manual piloting demonstration to test Orion’s handling qualities using the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) as a docking target.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely back away from the ICPS, after which the stage performed its own disposal burn and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.

Prior to its re-entry, four small CubeSats were deployed from SLS rocket’s Orion stage adapter.

Other tasks completed so far include a transition to the Deep Space Network for communications, the crew becoming acclimated to the space environment, completing their first rest periods, performing the first flywheel exercise, restoring the spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations, and configuring the spacecraft for the translunar injection burn.

During a planned lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, the astronauts will take high resolution photographs and provide their own observations of the lunar surface, including areas of the far side of the Moon never seen directly by humans. Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes, and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination.

Following a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-artemis-ii-mission-leaves-earth-orbit-for-flight-around-moon/

4 astronauts are now on their path to the moon. Here’s what happens next

The Artemis II mission crossed a crucial and historic threshold Thursday when the Orion spacecraft ignited its engine and propelled four astronauts toward the moon, setting them on a days-long slingshot trip that will reach deeper into space than any human has traveled before.

The burn, as these engine firings are called, lasted for a brief 5 minutes and 50 seconds, while Orion was just 115 miles (185 kilometers) above Earth, according to NASA. But the engine firing marked the first time humans — in this case NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — have made a move to leave Earth orbit since 1972 with the Apollo 17 mission. And with Glover, Koch and Hansen aboard, the journey represents the first time a Black astronaut, a woman astronaut and a non-American astronaut, respectively, have ventured this far.

“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,” Hansen said right after the burn.

Orion will now be on what’s called a “free return trajectory.” That’s spaceflight parlance for a slingshot trip: Because of orbital dynamics and the moon’s gravity, even if Orion never fires its engine again, the capsule will still swing around the moon and head back to Earth.

The mission, which took off at 6:35 p.m. ET Wednesday, marks the inaugural crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program — a long-term plan to return humans to the moon and eventually establish a lunar settlement. After lifting off atop a towering Space Launch System rocket, the astronauts immediately began putting Orion through its paces, including taking their Orion spacecraft for a 70-minute manual test-drive called a “proximity operations demonstration.”

For just over a week, the crewmembers will live, eat, sleep, workout and carry out science experiments inside the campervan-size space of Orion. All the while, they’ll face a multitude of risks that are inherent with a deep-space mission.

Here’s what you’ll want to watch for as Artemis II makes its way around the moon.

Live views of the crew

While the astronauts will keep much of their lives tucked inside the 16.5-foot-wide (5-meter-wide ) Orion capsule private, NASA plans to offer a brief broadcast from inside the capsule nearly every day of the mission.

NASA will occasionally give the public the opportunity to tune in and listen to the so-called downlink events as the astronauts speak to journalists and other inquirers on the ground. The first such event happened on Thursday, with reporters prompting the crew to share some fascinating details and reflections.

Wiseman, the mission’s commander, detailed a moment that left the crew speechless.

On Thursday evening, “Mission Control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the Earth,” Wiseman said, “and I don’t know what we all expected to see at that moment — but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole.

“You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks.”

The times and dates of these downlink events are posted here.

A key comms test

Among the activities planned for Day 3 is a test of communications equipment via the Deep Space Network, a communications system that supports space missions and provides radar and radio observations.

The DSN is “a ground-based network of large tracking dishes all around the world that together can determine Orion’s location while it is in deep space outside the range of GPS,” according to NASA.

The network consists of antennas positioned equidistant from one another in the United States, Spain and Australia, according to NASA.

These aren’t your typical TV satellites that give you the latest cable channels. Each DSN antenna is about 230 feet (70 meters) wide — taking up about two-thirds of a football field. DSN satellites also have a tracking capacity, providing measurement to the ground crew to allow them to determine a spacecraft’s precise location and velocity.

However, there will still be moments during the remainder of the mission where the Artemis II astronauts will lose all contact with the team of mission controllers as they attempt to go farther than any human has ever gone before.

One of those blackouts will occur during the roughly 40-minute period during which the crew is traveling closest to the moon’s surface as they venture to the lunar far side, blocking data from transmitting to or from Earth.

Entering the ‘sphere of influence’


En route to the moon, the Orion spacecraft will use its engine to stay on course, carrying out what NASA calls “trajectory correction” maneuvers. It’s all in the name of keeping the vehicle on a precision course toward that silvery orb in the sky.

At one point on Day 5 of this flight, late this Sunday, the spacecraft will officially cross the threshold of the lunar sphere of influence — the point in space where the tug of the moon’s gravity is stronger than Earth’s gravity.

A record-breaking lunar flyby

Day 6 of this mission will bring the highly anticipated crowning achievement. A sweeping lunar flyby will offer the crew unprecedented views of the moon’s far side — and allow the team to surpass the record for the farthest humans have ever traveled in space.

If all goes as planned, Artemis II will best the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by 3,366 miles (about 5,400 kilometers), reaching 252,021 miles (about 405,000 kilometers) from Earth.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/science/artemis-2-astronauts-moon-whats-next

Giant leap for humanity II.

According to one of Elon Musk's comment on of of the pictures - "Earth's not flat".

It's a different kind of courage to see how small we all are in the universal picture when you're out in space sha - the solar expanse and seemingly dark emptiness go even kill me 😅

USA and lies... The king of conspiracies.

The fools still thinks we're in the 70s

SO, A PLACE THEY CAN GO, LAND, MAKE CALLS AND EVEN TOOK PICTURES MORE THAN 50 YEARS AGO IS IMPOSSIBLE NOW?
They said they can only go around it now, but 50 years ago, they had the technology to land on it


The funniest was even the landline call of that nonsense Apollo mission.

If you believed that USA actually went to the moon in the 70s, you need your head to be checked.

Technology is beautiful
See what humans have been able to achieve.

In years to come, humans will do more crazy things.b

The space doesn't look beautiful, the Earth is and the heavens too.

God bless the blessed.




Tinubu, a bad man with good intentions

Technology is the way and life

See where other countries are while my own country is still struggling to generate electricity. Something that is basic science , not even rocket science o.

God bless the USA .
The most powerful nation on EARTH

NIGERIA WILL GET THERE SOMEDAY

We refuse the way of the other country who only know how to sponsor terrorism, surpress the voice of it's people and execute it's citizens.

This is real science not the African fiction where they show u a calabash and claim it is a night plane that can fly to UK and back in 3 seconds. When you ask for proof, they get angry at you for not believing in African culture. twaaar

Oyinbo with wahala!
Always wanting to nail their curiosity.

These guys are light years ahead of Africa and instead of Africans trying to catch up just like China and India are doing?......they're arguing religion and further dividing and even attacking themselves base of religious and tribal lines....and not to mention voting in bad leaders.

Another fake moon trip just like the fake Apollo moon landing. That is why it was done on April 1st the fools day, they are no longer even hiding it with their AI fake space traveling.

Picture of our world taken by Commander Reid Wiseman from the Orion spacecraft's window. Absolutely beautiful but also shows how fragile our home really is....shows how special but also abstractly, small we all really are.

The big travelling ball in the vastness of space that unites humanity and holds life together. Stripping away borders, politics, race and religion.

Science is beautiful.
Great innovation

God bless USA. The best country on Earth. The only country on earth to fly round the moon. First in 1972 and now!!! Hallelujah

planetx:
Another fake moon trip just like the fake Apollo moon landing. That is why it was done on April 1st the fools day, they are no longer even hiding it with their AI fake space traveling.

If your country no fit run am now, No call am fake. Can your country provide a basic need like electricity yet? After 60+ years

Congratulations to the 🇺🇸

OriOko88:
God bless USA. The best country on Earth. The only country on earth to fly round the moon. First in 1972 and now!!! Hallelujah

Amennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

NairalandBishop:
God bless the USA .
The most powerful nation on EARTH

NIGERIA WILL GET THERE SOMEDAY

We refuse the way of the other country who only know how to sponsor terrorism, surpress the voice of it's people and execute it's citizens.

Amennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Congratulations 👏🎉 to them

With this picture of the earth 🌎 I'm seeing in space, that means there's no heavens anywhere. After earth, na space then moon, then mars. Where's the heaven in all of this.

Nawa oo

Naustine:
See where other countries are while my own country is still struggling to generate electricity. Something that is basic science , not even rocket science o.

we are still praying to sky daddy. I hope the astronauts will locate him in the sky

Technolorrrgiaa!!




If you believed they put a man on the moon
(Man on the moon)
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool (nothing)

Song by R.E.M. ‧ 1992

God bless USA. haters can slam their head on the floor and pray for israel destruction.

I doubt Apollo landing actually happened. If not they should be talking about landing again

iramure:
we are still praying to sky daddy. I hope the astronauts will locate him in the sky

We are not even in the scheme of things in the world... Our leaders don't think of anything but looting and sleeping with women. Imagine people promising to build roads as campaign topic in 2026! Very shameful.. we're supposed to be past road construction and electricity campaign by now

Stephen0mozzy:
Giant leap for humanity II.

According to one of Elon Musk's comment on of of the pictures - "Earth's not flat".

It's a different kind of courage to see how small we all are in the universal picture when you're out in space sha - the solar expanse and seemingly dark emptiness go even kill me 😅

How is it a giant leap for humanity? What are we looking fir there that is useful to us here?

Mattswaggz:
These guys are light years ahead of Africa and instead of Africans trying to catch up just like China and India are doing?......they're arguing religion and further dividing and even attacking themselves base of religious and tribal lines....and not to mention voting in bad leaders.

The guys that are light years ahead don't want Africa to catch up. A byproduct of their effort is all the religious and tribal bickering you're witnessing and Nigeria will keep falling for it.

Distraction to keep people away from the war.

The earth is a dome and no one can leave.



We are earthlings!

We belong here alone!