NASA's Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo. The translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week, the AP reports. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon nearly 250,000 miles away.
- "Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit," NASA's Lori Glaze announced at a news conference. The engine firing was flawless, she noted.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said he and his crewmates were glued to the capsule's windows as they left Earth in the rearview mirror, taking in the "phenomenal" views. Their faces were pressed so tightly against the windows that they had to wipe them clean. "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. NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule's life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure. They dealt with issues including a malfunctioning toilet.
- Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will likely go the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth. Depending on details of timing and trajectory, they could break the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970, the BBC reports. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flight's end on April 10.
- Glover, Koch, and Hansen have already made history as the first Black person, the first woman, and the first non-US citizen to launch to the moon. Apollo's 24 lunar travelers were all white men. "Trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful," Glover said in a TV interview after beholding the globe from pole to pole. "And from up here you also look like one thing: homo sapiens as all of us no matter where you're from or what you look like, we're all one people."
- Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on "humanity's lunar homecoming arc" to bring them back to Earth. The capsule is relying on the gravity of Earth and the moon—termed a free-return lunar trajectory—to complete the round-trip figure-eight loop. The engine accelerated their capsule to more than 24,000 mph to shove them out of Earth's orbit.
- The next major milestone will be Monday's lunar flyby. Orion will zoom 4,000 miles beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.
- NASA says a Lunar Targeting Plan will guide what the crew looks for on the moon's surface during Monday's six-hour observation window. "The targeting plan will include documenting features that can help scientists understand how the Moon and solar system formed, such as craters, ancient lava flows, and cracks and ridges created as the Moon's outer layer slowly shifted over time," NASA says.
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