The Artemis II astronauts broke out of Earth orbit and set course for the moon Thursday, firing their main engine for nearly six minutes to raise the spacecraft’s speed to about 24,500 mph — fast enough to escape Earth’s gravity. Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen watched the critical trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn closely as it added roughly 867 mph to Orion’s orbital velocity.
The engine at the base of Orion’s service module ignited at 7:49 p.m. EDT at an altitude near 115 miles. When it shut down, the spacecraft was on a free‑return trajectory that will carry the crew around the far side of the moon Monday and then back toward Earth without further major burns.
“And Houston, (this is) Integrity,” Hansen radioed after the burn. “Just wanted to share a little bit of the sentiment up here as we came around the planet and were zooming over just a hundred nautical miles above it, if you’ve got a moment.” Mission control replied, “Please, Jeremy, we’re all ears.” Hansen thanked everyone who helped make Artemis possible and said the crew “firmly felt the power of your perseverance during every second of that burn.”
Cameras aboard Orion sent back dramatic images, including a crescent-Earth view as the capsule orbited in a highly elliptical path reaching tens of thousands of miles. Hansen later described “a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth lit by the moon.” Wiseman told reporters during a live question-and-answer session that the crew had been “glued to the window” and taking pictures. He recalled a moment earlier when Houston reoriented the spacecraft during sunset; from the capsule they could see the entire globe from pole to pole, Africa, Europe and even the Northern Lights — a pause that held all four astronauts in silence.
Wiseman said the TLI was tense but successful. “There is nothing normal about this. Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort, and we are now just realizing the gravity of that,” he said.
Launched from Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, the crew spent their first day checking Orion’s systems, testing maneuverability and adjusting their orbit to line up for the free‑return path. NASA’s Mission Management Team reviewed the capsule’s near‑flawless performance and cleared the vehicle and crew for the TLI burn. Lead flight director Jeff Radigan announced the go decision before the maneuver; Hansen replied, “Alright, Jeff. We love those words. And we’re loving the view. We’re falling back to Earth real fast and looking forward to accelerating back to the moon.”
The Artemis II crew is the first to fly aboard a Lockheed Martin‑built Orion and the first group to head for the moon since Apollo’s last mission in December 1972. During the mission they are expected to travel farther from Earth than any humans before them, reaching about 252,021 miles behind the moon — roughly 3,366 miles farther than the Apollo 13 record.
Beyond demonstrating Orion’s performance, Artemis II aims to test procedures, planning and flight control protocols needed for future lunar landings after the decades‑long gap since Apollo. NASA views the mission as a pathfinder to show the Orion crew ferry can routinely carry astronauts to the moon and back, paving the way for one or two landings near the lunar south pole as soon as 2028.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was on hand in mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Isaacman says NASA will fly another Orion crew next year to rehearse rendezvous and docking operations with lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin; that mission, Artemis III, will take place in low-Earth orbit. Isaacman also outlined plans to spend $20 billion over seven years to accelerate launch cadence toward a goal of lunar landings every six months while building a base near the moon’s south pole.