Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen described a surreal moment aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, saying it felt like he was “falling out of the sky” as the crew powered towards the moon on the Artemis II mission.
The crew, including Hansen, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, crossed the halfway mark between Earth and the moon, more than 241,000 km (150,000 miles) away.
Hansen said the most intense moment came during the translunar injection burn, a critical manoeuvre that set Orion on its path towards the moon, bringing the spacecraft within about 200 kilometres of Earth before sling-shotting it toward the Moon.
The Artemis II mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marks NASA’s return to crewed lunar missions under the Artemis programme.
The four-member crew is expected to reach the Moon’s vicinity in about four days, with a planned flyby scheduled for April 6.
The mission is designed as a critical step toward future lunar landings, with a future mission expected to attempt a lunar landing as early as 2028.
