Space & Astronomy

Artemis II passes 'point of no return' on its journey to the Moon

By T.K. Randall
April 3, 2026

Image: Artemis II Launch
Credit: / (PD) NASA The eyes of the world were on Cape Canaveral on Wednesday evening when NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) soared into the heavens - carrying with it the Orion capsule 'Integrity' and its brave crew of astronauts who began their journey into the history books.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch have quickly become household names, with people tuning in around the world to watch them embark on their mission.

Their destination is lunar orbit - a place no human has been since 1972.

Shortly after launch, the Artemis II crew performed a series of burns designed to place them into the correct position in Earth's orbit for their trip to the Moon.A few hours ago, the final burn - known as the trans-lunar injection - placed the spacecraft on a direct course for lunar orbit - essentially acting as a 'point of no return' for the mission.

From here on out, everything will need to go to plan as the astronauts are now committed to the approximately 10-day trip around the Moon and back.

Things hadn't gone entirely to plan when the ship's toilet malfunctioned early on, but thankfully this was fixed fairly quickly, and all systems were deemed ready for the journey proper.

You can check out an interview with the crew, recorded a few hours ago, below:


Source: Independent

Tags: Artemis, Moon