The Orion capsule carrying four astronauts in NASA's Artemis II mission executed a key thruster firing on Thursday (April 2) that kicked the crew out of Earth's orbit and on a path toward the moon, committing them to reaching the farthest distance humans have ever travelled in space.

The successful manoeuvre put the crew on a path to enter the moon's sphere of gravitational influence by Sunday (April 5) morning, as they prepare to beat the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Since launching 26 hours earlier from Florida, the astronauts spent their first day in space testing cameras, steering their Orion spacecraft and dealing with small toilet and email issues that were later fixed.

They had been in a highly elliptical Earth orbit swinging them as far as 43,000 miles (64,000 km) away on one end and about 100 miles close on the other, from where the key thruster firing to the moon began, known as the translunar injection burn.

The manoeuvre, which began at 7:49 p.m. ET (2349 GMT), is an orbital exit ramp slinging them out of Earth's orbit and onto a figure-eight-shaped trajectory toward the moon. It's the final major thruster firing of the mission, leaving the Orion capsule largely under the influence of orbital mechanics for the remainder of the mission.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (APRIL 2, 2026) (NASA - For editorial use only)

1. MISSION CONTROL

IN SPACE (APRIL 2, 2026) (NASA - For editorial use only)

2. EARTH AS SEEN FROM ORION CAPSULE AS IT LEAVES PLANET’S ORBIT AT 2349 GMT

HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (APRIL 2, 2026) (NASA - For editorial use only)

3. MISSION CONTROL

IN SPACE (APRIL 2, 2026) (NASA - For editorial use only)

4. VARIOUS OF EARTH AS SEEN FROM ORION CAPSULE AS IT LEAVES PLANET’S ORBIT