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The Artemis II crew has officially departed Earth’s orbit, propelling the Orion spacecraft on its journey toward the Moon.

The spacecraft’s main engine executed a five-minute, 55-second burn, known as the translunar injection (TLI), which Nasa’s Dr. Lori Glaze described as having gone “flawlessly.”

From inside the capsule, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen reported the crew was “feeling pretty good up here on our way to the Moon.”

Artemis II is now following a looping trajectory that will carry the astronauts around the Moon’s far side and back to Earth, marking humanity’s first venture beyond Earth orbit since 1972.

A livestream from Orion showed Earth slowly receding, shrinking into the distance as the spacecraft advanced into deep space.

Hansen, the first non-American to travel to the Moon, told mission control that the crew could “firmly feel the power” of the teams who made the mission possible.

“Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of,” he said. “It's your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the Moon.”

Before the TLI, Orion spent roughly a day in a stretched “high Earth orbit” while engineers verified the spacecraft’s engines, navigation, and life-support systems. Once cleared, the service module ignited its main engine, giving the spacecraft a steady thrust that added thousands of kilometers per hour to its speed.

The burn sent Artemis II on a path that will take it farther from Earth than any human has traveled—over 4,700 miles (7,600 km) beyond the Moon—before gravity swings the spacecraft back. Nasa said this could surpass the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, depending on trajectory and timing.

TLI is not irreversible. Even after the burn, mission controllers can execute a rapid return maneuver to bring the crew home safely if necessary. “In the event of an emergency, the U-turn is the fastest way home in the first 36 hours after the TLI,” Orion program manager Howard Hu said before launch. “After that it can be just as quick, and often simpler, to stay on course around the Moon and fall back to Earth.”

Hu added that the team “have run hundreds of thousands of [simulations] to ensure that we are able to get the crew home safely.” After the successful burn, he told reporters with a grin, “What a great couple of days!”

As Orion ventures into deep space, astronauts will witness Earth shrinking to a tiny blue-and-white marble, while the Moon grows from a bright disc into a cratered landscape filling the view.

Around the sixth day of the mission, Orion will cruise past the Moon and the astronauts will witness a total solar eclipse. The Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun, revealing its normally hidden halo, with Earth visible to one side.

While the TLI may sound like space jargon to many, it represents a major milestone—a powerful push that brings humanity one step closer to walking on the lunar surface once again.