Smooth Sailing for Artemis Crew So Far

The Artemis II crew continues on a smooth course to the Moon today. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are now about halfway to their destination, with a loop around the Moon on Monday.

Shortly after their Trans-Lunar Injection or TLI burn yesterday, Wiseman captured this stunning image of Earth as they flew away towards the Moon.

Artemis II is a test flight to check out how the Orion capsule, named Integrity, performs with a crew aboard. Orion has flown only once before, an uncrewed test flight in 2022. Since there was no one aboard, it wasn’t outfitted with life support systems. Now there are four people who need basics like food, water, air, and a toilet.

So far, all is going very well not only with life support, but all the other systems on Orion and its European Service Module. NASA skipped a scheduled 8-second engine firing today to fine turn Orion’s trajectory because it wasn’t needed.

The crew will not go into orbit around the Moon, much less land, on this first human trip to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Instead they will fly around the Moon on Monday, coming as close as 4,000-6,000 miles (6,400-9,600 km) from the surface and then continuing to a distance of 252,757 statute miles (406,722 kilometers) from Earth, the furthest anyone has ever traveled.

They will be out of communication with Earth for about 40 minutes while behind the Moon.

Orion is on a “free-return” trajectory that will bring them back to Earth even if the engines do not perform as planned. The TLI burn put them on a path to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego a week from today, April 10, at 8:06 pm ET.

Artemis II is part of NASA’s program to return astronauts to the lunar surface for sustained human presence.

NASA is providing 24/7 coverage of the mission and daily media updates on its YouTube channel.