NASA clears Artemis crew to head toward the Moon

With a green light from mission controllers, NASA’s four Artemis astronauts are now cleared to leave Earth orbit and begin a long-awaited return to the Moon, setting up the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century.

NASA Flight Director Jeff Radigan informed the crew that the mission management team had approved the engine burn aboard their Orion capsule, a critical step that will place the spacecraft on course for the Moon.

The five minute and 49 second burn is set for 7:49pm Eastern Time (00:49am), a maneuver that will push the astronauts out of Earth orbit and into the opening leg of a three-day journey to the Moon, the first such voyage by humans 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 crew – Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – spent their opening hours in space running checks and working through minor issues, including a communications problem and a toilet malfunction.

Before settling in for a few hours of sleep, they also fired the spacecraft’s main engine to move Orion into a high Earth orbit, according to the US space agency.

“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,” he added.

Orion will swing around the Moon during the 10-day Artemis II mission, a test flight intended to help clear the path for a lunar landing in 2028.

Read more:Watch: NASA rocket launches from Florida for Artemis II missionAstronauts strapped in for historic US lunar launch

Before their rest period, the astronauts carried out a series of inspections aimed at confirming the safety and dependability of a spacecraft making its first human flight.

Among the issues uncovered was a “controller issue with the toilet when they spun it up”, said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator.

Mr Isaacman said the communications issue had been fixed and that the astronauts were “in great spirits”.

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

The mission is packed with milestones, including sending the first person of colour, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.

If the flight unfolds as planned, the astronauts will also travel farther from Earth than any humans before them – more than 402,000km.

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

SLS is intended to help the United States make repeated journeys back to the Moon, with the longer-term ambition of building a permanent base to support deeper space exploration.

The rocket had been expected to launch as early as February after years of delays and soaring costs.

Instead, repeated technical setbacks pushed the timeline back and even forced the rocket to be returned to its hangar for repairs.

The current US push back to the Moon has often been framed through the lens of competition with China, which is targeting a human lunar landing by 2030.

During a post-launch briefing, Mr Isaacman said competition was “a great way to mobilise the resources of a nation”.

“Competition can be a good thing,” he said, adding “we certainly have competition now”.

The Artemis programme has also faced pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has accelerated its timetable in the hope that astronauts will step onto the lunar surface before his second term ends in early 2029.

Mr Trump hailed “our brave astronauts” at the start of his televised address yesterday evening on the war against Iran, describing the launch as “quite something”.

Still, the projected 2028 Moon landing has drawn scepticism from some experts, partly because Washington is counting heavily on advances delivered by the private sector.

‘Once in a lifetime experience’

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Scientist and Space Writer Dr Niamh Shaw watched last night’s Moon launch from Cape Canaveral.

She said the spectacle was a once in a lifetime experience, unlike any launch she had seen before.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, she said: “The most distinctive thing was it just hits you in your chest, you could feel the vibrations in your chest, and then it went down to your feet.

“It was just incredible.”

She said Artemis II forms “part of the beginning of an infrastructure where they intend to build a research station on the Moon”.

“This mission is testing the living quarters, the Orion Capsule. Artemis I was about the rocket…Artemis III is about the Lander – how are we going to get people to land on the Moon. And if that all goes well, Artemis IV, as they say, footprints and flags on the Moon,” she said.

She said the next two missions had been expected next year and in 2028, calling that timeline a “very ambitious plan”.

“You never know, people who work in the space sector, they make the impossible possible,” Dr Shaw said.