Artemis II crew clears Earth orbit, heads for the moon
Artemis II astronauts exit Earth orbit and I headed to the moon on Thursdayigniting their main engine for nearly six minutes to increase the ship’s speed to 24,500 mph, the speed required to escape Earth’s gravitational grip.
Crossing the low point of a highly elliptical orbit, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen closely monitored the firing of the “translunar injection” or TLI engine, which added 867 mph to their already high orbital speed.
The Shuttle-era Orbital Maneuvering System engine located at the base of the Orion capsule’s service module fired at 7:49 p.m. EDT at an altitude of just 115 miles. When the engine stopped, the Orion capsule left Earth on a so-called free return trajectory. who will transport the astronauts around the far side of the Moon on Monday, then back to Earth without any other major rocket launches.
“And Houston, (that’s) Integrity,” Hansen said over the radio after the burn was over. “I just wanted to share a little bit of that feeling here as we circled the planet and zoomed just a hundred nautical miles above it, if you have a moment.”
A spectacular view of Earth’s crescent was beamed by cameras on the Artemis II Orion capsule early on April 2, 2026, as the spacecraft orbited Earth in a highly elliptical orbit at altitudes of up to 40,000 miles or more. / Credit: NASA
“Please, Jeremy, we’re all ears,” Mission Control responded.
“Well, with this successful TLI, the crew is feeling pretty good here on their way to the Moon,” Hansen responded. “We just wanted to let everyone who worked on the planet to make Artemis possible know that we strongly felt the power of your perseverance through every second of this burn. Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it is your hopes for the future that now carry us on this journey around the moon.”
Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, billionaire entrepreneur, spaceflight veteran and architect of a revamped lunar program to make lunar flights twice a year in preparation for building a U.S. base near the lunar south pole, attended mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Moments after the TLI burned, now outside Earth, Hansen called to say, “We just have a beautiful view of the far side of the Earth lit by the Moon. Phenomenal.”
“That sounds incredible,” the mission control spacecraft’s communicator responded. “We hope you take photos for us.”
“Yeah, none of us can eat lunch because we’re glued to the window. We’re taking pictures. Reid says he can’t take it anymore.”
Launched Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center, Wiseman and his crewmates spent their first “day” in space testing the myriad systems of their Orion capsule.
They also checked the capsule’s maneuverability and adjusted its highly elliptical orbit to align them with the free return trajectory on a loop around the far side of the Moon on Monday.
NASA’s mission management team met Thursday and, after reviewing the Orion’s near-perfect performance, cleared the spacecraft and its crew to undergo the critical TLI burn.
“Hey, just to be clear, we’re going for the TLI after the MMT concluded its deliberations a few minutes ago, and we’re going to continue down that path and prepare for the burn here,” Senior Flight Director Jeff Radigan said via radio.
Hansen responded: “Very good, Jeff. We love those words. And we love the view. We’re falling back to Earth very quickly and can’t wait to accelerate back to the Moon.”
Wiseman and his teammates are the first astronauts to fly aboard an Orion spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin and the first to head to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in December 1972.
In doing so, they are expected to travel further from Earth than anyone before them, reaching a distance of some 252,455 miles as they fly behind the moon, breaking a record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.
But the main purpose of the flight, besides putting the Orion through its paces, is to test the planning, procedures and flight control protocols for handling upcoming lunar landing missions after a half-century gap between the Artemis and Apollo programs.
The Artemis II flight is considered a pioneer by NASA, demonstrating that the Orion ferry can safely transport astronauts to and from the Moon on a regular basis, paving the way for one and possibly two landings near the Moon’s south pole in 2028.
In the midst of planning for those flights, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency would send another Orion crew next year to repeat rendezvous and docking procedures with lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. This flight, Artemis III, will be carried out in low Earth orbit.
Isaacman says NASA will spend $20 billion over the next seven years to increase the pace of launches to one moon landing every six months, while building a base near the Moon’s south pole.
Supreme Court expresses skepticism over Trump’s order to end birthright
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, speaks on the economic impacts of the war in Iran
Hawaii doctor’s son testifies that father confessed to trying to kill stepmother
