Artemis II crew leaves Earth’s orbit after successful translunar burn
New images from inside the Orion capsule show the Artemis II crew smiling and speaking with Mission Control just moments before leaving Earth’s orbit. NASA confirms the spacecraft has now begun its journey toward the moon, roughly 212,000 miles away. Earlier in the evening, the crew completed the translunar injection burn — a six‑minute engine firing that pushed Orion out of Earth’s orbit and onto its lunar trajectory.