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The Orion spacecraft, which was on its way to the Moon as part of the Artemis 2 mission with four astronauts on board, has left Earth's orbit and is heading towards its satellite.
On April 2, at approximately 7:49 p.m. East Coast Time, the spacecraft's engines were fired in what is known as a translunar injection burn, giving Orion the necessary acceleration to exit Earth orbit.
According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, this phase proceeded according to plan. Just over 25 hours elapsed between the mission's launch and the start of its lunar approach.
The Orion spacecraft, part of the Artemis 2 mission, was launched on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The crew will fly around the Moon in 10 days and return to Earth without landing. The distance from Earth to the Moon is almost 400,000 kilometers.
The previous manned flight to the Moon took place more than 50 years ago, on December 7, 1972, on the Apollo 17 spacecraft.
The current launch is the second stage of the new US lunar program, Artemis. In December 2022, as part of the first stage of the Artemis-1 program, the Orion spacecraft flew unmanned to the Moon, spent several weeks in orbit, and returned to Earth.
The third stage of the Artemis-3 program involves landing humans on the surface of the Moon.
The Orion crew includes Reed Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover. Victor Glover became the first African-American and Christina Koch the first woman astronaut to participate in a lunar mission.
The Artemis program was announced in 2019. Its goal is to return the United States to the Moon, including regular manned missions and the creation of a staging base for flights to Mars.
