Coin Press - NASA gives Artemis crew green light to head towards Moon

NASA Flight Director Jeff Radigan told the astronauts the mission management team had approved firing up the engine of their Orion capsule to send the spacecraft on a trajectory towards the Moon.

The 5min and 49sec burn is scheduled to take place at 7:49 pm Eastern Time (2349 GMT) and send the astronauts out of Earth orbit to begin the three-day voyage toward the Moon, the first since 1972.

"Flight controllers will closely monitor engine performance, guidance, and navigation data throughout the maneuver to ensure Orion remains precisely aligned for the outbound journey," NASA said.

The enormous orange-and-white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule blasted off flawlessly from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday for the long-anticipated journey around the Moon.

The astronauts -- Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen -- spent their first hours in space performing checks and troubleshooting minor problems -- including a communications issue and a malfunctioning toilet.

Before getting a few hours of sleep, they ignited the spacecraft's main engine to place it in a high Earth orbit, the US space agency said.

"Artemis II astronauts are doing great," NASA chief Jared Isaacman said in a post on X. "The Orion spacecraft is performing well in an impressive elliptical orbit."

Orion is to loop around the Moon as part of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission aimed at paving the way for a Moon landing in 2028.

- 'Great spirits' -

Before their rest period, the astronauts performed various checks to ensure the reliability and safety of a spacecraft that has never carried humans before.

Among the problems they identified was a "controller issue with the toilet when they spun it up," said Amit Kshatriya, NASA's associate administrator.

Isaacman, the NASA chief, said a communications problem had been resolved and the astronauts were "in great spirits."

The mission marks a series of historic accomplishments: sending the first person of color, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.

If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before -- more than 250,000 miles.

It is also the inaugural crewed flight of SLS, NASA's new lunar rocket.

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.

- Compete with China -

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.

During a post-launch briefing, Isaacman said competition was "a great way to mobilize the resources of a nation."

"Competition can be a good thing," he said. "And we certainly have competition now."

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's technological headway.

D.Goldberg--CPN