Orion, with the Artemis II crew on board, has left Earth's orbit and is heading for the Moon

The Orion spacecraft, carrying the Artemis II mission crew, has left Earth's orbit and is heading for the Moon.

This was reported by NASA.

Overnight, the spacecraft performed a key maneuver—a trans-lunar injection—during which its engines accelerated it to approximately 40,000 km/h, allowing it to escape Earth’s gravity and enter a flight path toward the Moon.

Thus, the astronauts became the first people to head to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Currently, Orion is more than 111,000 km from Earth and traveling at a speed of over 9,000 km/h. It is less than 300,000 km from the Moon.

The crew is expected to reach Earth’s satellite in the coming days.

NASA has also released a new photo from a camera on the spacecraft’s solar panel: the image shows the Moon as a small bright dot—the mission’s primary target.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, NASA successfully launched the Artemis II mission, which became the first crewed flight around the Moon in over half a century.

The mission will be an important milestone in the Artemis program, which is preparing humans to return to the lunar surface.