{"id":581924,"date":"2026-04-03T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:13:08","slug":"artemis-ii-astronauts-rocket-towards-the-moon-after-breaking-free-of-earths-orbit-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581924\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II astronauts rocket towards the moon after breaking free of Earth\u2019s orbit | Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

The four Artemis <\/a>astronauts fired up their spacecraft\u2019s engine to break away from Earth\u2019s orbit and zoomed towards the moon <\/a>on Thursday, a milestone that commits Nasa to the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half-a-century.<\/p>\n

With enough thrust to accelerate a stationary car to highway driving speed in less than three seconds, the Orion capsule engine blasted the astronauts on their trajectory towards the moon, which they now will loop as part of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission.<\/p>\n

The burn lasting just under six minutes propelled the astronauts on their three-day voyage towards Earth\u2019s natural satellite, the first since 1972.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like a good burn, we\u2019re confirming,\u201d mission control in Houston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crew is feeling pretty good up here on our way to the moon,\u201d said astronaut Jeremy Hansen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanity has once again shown what we are capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The burn came one day after the enormous orange-and-white Space<\/a> Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule blasted off flawlessly from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the long-anticipated journey around the moon.<\/p>\n

Now that they\u2019re moonbound, there\u2019s no turning back: the astronauts are on a \u201cfree-return\u201d trajectory, which uses the moon\u2019s gravity to slingshot around it before heading back towards Earth without propulsion.<\/p>\n

In the event that something goes wrong, the astronauts are wearing suits that also serve as \u201csurvival systems\u201d \u2013 in the unlikely case of a cabin depressurization or leak, they\u2019ll maintain oxygen, temperature controls and the correct pressure for up to six days.<\/p>\n

The astronauts \u2013 Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Hansen \u2013 spent their first hours in space performing checks and troubleshooting minor problems on the spacecraft that has never carried humans before, including a communications issue and a malfunctioning toilet.<\/p>\n

They began the second day of their mission by playing Green Light by John Legend and Andre 3000, Nasa<\/a> said \u2013 a reference to the go signal they would soon get to fire up the engine and get moving towards the moon.<\/p>\n

They also had their first workouts of the mission on the spacecraft\u2019s \u201cflywheel exercise device\u201d \u2013 each astronaut will carve out 30 minutes a day for fitness, a bid to minimise the muscle and bone loss that happens without gravity.<\/p>\n

The 10-day Artemis 2 mission is aimed at paving the way for a moon landing in 2028.<\/p>\n

The mission marks a series of historic accomplishments: sending the first person of colour, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.<\/p>\n

If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing further from Earth than any human before \u2013 more than 250,000 miles (402,336km).<\/p>\n

It is also the inaugural crewed flight of SLS, Nasa\u2019s new lunar rocket.<\/p>\n

SLS is designed to allow the United States to repeatedly return to the moon with the goal of establishing a permanent base that will offer a platform for further exploration. It was meant to take off as early as February after years of delays and massive cost overruns. But repeated setbacks stalled it and even necessitated rolling the rocket back to its hangar for repairs.<\/p>\n

The current era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort to compete with China, which aims to land humans on the moon by 2030.<\/p>\n

During a post-launch briefing, Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, said competition was \u201ca great way to mobilise the resources of a nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetition can be a good thing,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we certainly have competition now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis program has come under pressure from Trump, who has pushed its pace with the hope that boots will hit the lunar surface before his second term ends in early 2029. But the projected date of 2028 for a landing has raised eyebrows among some experts, in part because Washington is relying heavily on the private sector\u2019s technological headway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The four Artemis astronauts fired up their spacecraft\u2019s engine to break away from Earth\u2019s orbit and zoomed towards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-581924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}