Artemis Two Astronauts Blast Off for Moon Flyby

On April 3rd, the four Artemis II astronauts just fired up their Orion capsule's engine,

breaking free from Earth's orbit and blasting toward the moon for the first crew lunar fly

by since 1972.

That six-minute burn gave them the thrust that hit highway speeds in seconds, kicking

off a three-day trip on this 10-day mission.

Earlier this week, NASA's massive space launch system rocket lifted off clean from Kennedy

Space Center in Florida, carrying Commander Reed Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina

Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.

Now on a free return path, the moon's gravity will slingshot them around before looping

back home no extra fuel needed.

Crews reporting, they're feeling solid up there.

With mission control in Houston confirming a perfect burn, Hansen called it a big win

for humanity, and they've already tackled minor glitches like comms hiccups and a finicky

toilet while running system checks.

Meanwhile, they've kicked off daily workouts on the flywheel device.

Thirty minutes each to fight muscle loss in zero-G, and even spun up some John.

Legend and Andre, 3,000 vibes before the burn.

This marks the first crewed flight for SLS, pushing records by going farther than any humans

before, over 250,000 miles out.

All this sets the stage for a moon landing by 2028, amid U.S.-China space races and

political pushes to speed things up, proving we're.

Back in the game for lunar bases and beyond.