Artemis II Crew Successfully Fires Engine to Begin Historic Moon Journey

Humanity Returns to Lunar Path After 50 Years

For the first time in over half a century, humans are on their way to the Moon. NASA's Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. The critical maneuver marks a pivotal milestone for the four-person Artemis II crew, who launched just one day earlier from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission management team will gather for its first meeting of the mission to assess the spacecraft's systems and will give their approval for the upcoming translunar injection burn that will send astronauts out of Earth orbit and toward the Moon for the first time since 1972. The crew includes NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Powerful Engine Performance Propels Crew Forward

Orion's main engine provides up to 6,700 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. During the burn, Orion's mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing. This impressive display of engineering represents years of preparation and testing to ensure the spacecraft could safely carry its human cargo beyond Earth's gravitational pull.

The translunar injection burn is scheduled for 7:49 p.m. EDT and will last for five minutes and 49 seconds, producing a change in velocity of 1,274 feet per second, sending humans out of low Earth orbit. Flight controllers monitored every aspect of the engine performance, guidance, and navigation data throughout the maneuver to ensure Orion remained precisely on course.

Scientific Opportunities Await at the Moon

After the TLI burn that sent Orion on its path to the Moon, the lunar science team began building a Lunar Targeting Plan, a guide to what the crew will look at on the Moon's surface during its approximately six-hour observation on Monday, April 6. 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.

The crew will experience a unique celestial event during their lunar flyby. One feature that will be added to the plan is a solar eclipse, which will last for nearly an hour toward the end of the flyby window. During the eclipse, the Sun will be hidden from view as it moves behind the Moon from the perspective of Orion. The crew will see a mostly dark Moon at this time — an opportunity for them to look for flashes of light from meteoroids striking the Moon's surface, dust lofting above the edge of the Moon, and deep space targets, including planets.

Looking Ahead to Lunar Exploration

During a planned lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, the astronauts will take high resolution photographs and provide their own observations of the lunar surface, including areas of the far side of the Moon never seen directly by humans. Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes, and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination.

This 10-day mission represents far more than a technological demonstration. Over the course of this 10-day mission, Koch, Glover, Hansen and Wiseman will burn through 5% of their lifetime caps. For comparison, you'd have to spend an entire month on the International Space Station, which lies just a couple hundred miles above Earth, to reach that same level. The successful engine burn brings humanity one step closer to establishing a sustainable presence beyond Earth, setting the stage for future lunar landings and eventual missions to Mars.