Artemis II is officially on its way to moon
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As the astronauts pass behind the Moon they will experience a moment of silence and solitude as communication with the Earth is blocked.
The engine firing provided a slingshot-like boost to the Orion capsule, speeding it to 24,500 mph, the velocity needed to break free of Earth's gravitational clasp for a trek to the moon.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen blasted off at 6:35 p.m. ET Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They are the first people to launch toward the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, more than 50 years ago.
NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with NASA's Kelsey Evans Young, the Artemis science flight operations lead, about the rigors of space and the lunar slingshot to get home.
NASA's latest photos from the Artemis II mission show Earth in stunning details as the astronauts near a milestone distance of 100,000 miles away.
Monday night, the Orion capsule will loop around the moon's far side, setting a new distance record from earth. For a time NASA will lose all communication with the crew: 40 minutes of radio silence.
NASA's Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Wednesday. The mission aims to send four astronauts around the moon on a roughly 10-day journey.
The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon. NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.