There are four astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft: Commander Reed Weissman, as well as Victor Glover, Kristina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Over the next 10 days, the crew will fly around the Earth's natural satellite and return back, RIA Novosti reports.
About eight minutes after launch, the spacecraft reached outer space, and about an hour later it entered low-Earth orbit. During the first day, the astronauts will check the operation of the spacecraft's life support and control systems. On the third day, Orion will perform a maneuver to enter the flight path to the Moon, on the fifth it will enter the lunar gravity zone, and on the sixth it will get as close as possible to the surface of the satellite and begin its journey back to Earth.
Earlier, the launch of the mission was postponed due to an identified leak, which forced NASA to skip the March launch window. A new launch opportunity opened on April 1, and the mission successfully launched at the scheduled time.
This flight is considered a key stage in preparation for the next missions of the Artemis program. NASA expects astronauts to land on the moon again in 2028, for the first time since the Apollo program. The last time a man set foot on the moon was in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.
