Four Artemis astronauts were zooming towards the Moon on Thursday after a major engine firing, a milestone that commits NASA to the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century.
With enough thrust to accelerate a stationary car to highway driving speed in less than three seconds, the Orion capsule engine blasted the astronauts on their trajectory towards the Moon, which they now will loop as part of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission.
"Human beings have left Earth orbit" for the first time since 1972, said NASA official Lori Glaze at a briefing in Houston following the nearly six-minute burn.
In the moments that followed what the US space agency dubbed a "flawless" firing, astronaut Jeremy Hansen said that "humanity has once again shown what we are capable of."
Later on the astronauts said they were "glued to the window" taking pictures.
"We are getting just a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth right now, lit by the Moon," said Hansen. "Phenomenal."
Thursday's burn, the last major ignition of the mission, came one day after the enormous orange-and-white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the long-anticipated journey around the Moon.
Now that they're Moonbound, there's no turning back: The astronauts are on a "free-return" trajectory, which uses the Moon's gravity to slingshot around it before heading back towards Earth without propulsion.
"From this point forward, the laws of orbital mechanics are going to carry our crew to the Moon, around the far side and back to Earth," said Glaze.
Commander Reid Wiseman (R) poses for a photo with his family as he walks out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building with (L-R) mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover ahead of the launch of the Artemis II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 1.//AFP
The astronauts are wearing suits that also serve as "survival systems" -- in the unlikely case of a cabin depressurization or leak, they'll maintain oxygen, temperature controls and the correct pressure for up to six days.
The astronauts -- Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Hansen -- spent their first hours in space performing checks and troubleshooting minor problems on the spacecraft that has never carried humans before, including a communications issue and a malfunctioning toilet.
Howard Hu, who oversees the Orion spacecraft, said during Thursday's briefing that the team had accomplished the objectives of tests designed to demonstrate the capsule's ability to dock with a future lunar lander.
The crew did "a terrific job," Hu said.
"I'm just really happy that we're headed to the Moon," he added.
- Historic journey -
The astronauts began the second day of their mission by playing "Green Light" by John Legend and Andre 3000, NASA said -- a reference to the go signal they would soon get to fire up the engine and get moving towards the Moon.
They also had their first workouts of the mission on the spacecraft's "flywheel exercise device" -- each astronaut will carve out 30 minutes a day for fitness, a bid to minimize the muscle and bone loss that happens without gravity.
The 10-day mission is aimed at paving the way for a Moon landing in 2028.
Artemis 2 marks a series of historic accomplishments: sending the first person of color, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.
If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.
It is also the inaugural crewed flight of SLS, NASA's new lunar rocket.
That rocket is part of a system NASA aims to use to repeatedly return to the Moon with the goal of establishing a permanent base that will offer a platform for further exploration.
It was meant to take off as early as February after years of delays and massive cost overruns. But repeated setbacks stalled the launch.
The current era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort to compete with China, which aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030.
The Artemis program has come under pressure from President Donald Trump, who has pushed its pace with the hope that boots will hit the lunar surface before his second term ends in early 2029.
But the projected date of 2028 for a landing has raised eyebrows among some experts, in part because Washington is relying heavily on the private sector's technological headway.
