The Orion spacecraft, carrying four experienced astronauts, left Earth's orbit as part of the Artemis 2 mission and flew towards its natural satellite, the Moon. On Thursday, April 2, at 19:49 US Eastern Time (23:49 GMT, 00:49 CET), the spacecraft's engines were fired with a translunar injection pulse, providing Orion with the necessary acceleration to leave Earth's orbit.
According to NASA, initial reports indicate that this phase was successfully completed as planned. Thus, a little more than 25 hours passed from the launch of the mission to the start of the flight to the Moon.
Specifically, the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis 2 mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time. The crew is scheduled to orbit the Moon within 10 days and return to Earth without landing on the lunar surface. According to reports, the Earth's natural satellite is located at a distance of about 400,000 kilometers. The previous flight to the Moon was carried out more than 50 years ago - on December 7, 1972, as part of the Apollo 17 mission.
The new launch of Orion is the second important milestone in the history of the new US lunar program. In December 2022, the first phase of the program - Artemis 1 - was completed, during which Orion, as a test, entered lunar orbit in unmanned mode, remained in orbit for several weeks and successfully returned to Earth.
The next phase of the program is Artemis 3, which will land humans directly on the Moon.
The current mission is being led by Reed Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover. Glover is the first African-American astronaut to fly on a lunar mission, while Koch is the first woman to fly on such a historic mission.
NASA announced the Artemis program in 2019. The program's main goals are to return the United States to the Moon, establish regular manned missions, and create an interim space base for future missions to Mars.
This mission is not only historic, but also further increases human interest in space and opens up new avenues for future manned missions.
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