Thursday April 2, 2026 | OFF-PLANET [5:42 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends [VICTORIA, BC]
The Artemis II crew just took a fast spin around the Earth just ahead of 5 pm PT today and pushed out of the Earth’s orbit toward the Moon. They call it a Translunar Injection Burn (TIB).
The burn took 5 minutes and 50 seconds. It puts Orion in the proper position to fly around the moon and return to Earth by flight-day 10.
Right after the exciting burn ride, Col Jeremy Hansen on board the Orion vessel called in to mission control in Houston with these words for NASA and people on Earth:
“With that successful TOI the crew’s feeling pretty good up here on our way to the moon. And we just wanted to communicate to everyone around the planet who’s worked to make Artemis possible that we firmly felt the power of your perseverance during every second of that burn. Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of. And it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon,” said Col Jeremy Hansen.
The crew launched from Florida yesterday at 6:35:12 ET. Last night and today they did some technical troubleshooting of various systems and procedures.
“We’re feeling pretty good up here,” said Hansen a bit earlier today.
Around 5:19 pm PT this evening, Hansen said that the crew was seeing the dark side of the earth lit by the moon.
“We’re taking pictures,” said Hansen to mission control, as there was no transmission of images at that position, even to mission control.
Press conference this evening:
A NASA press conference will be held this evening at 8:30 pm ET (5:30 pm PT).
===== RELATED:
- Day 2 technology details for Artemis II crew (April 2, 2026)
- Artemis II: troubleshooting some technical things (April 2, 2026)
- Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen heads to the moon (April 1, 2026)
- Artemis Mission Updates (NASA)
- NEWS SECTIONS: AEROSPACE | OFF-PLANET | TECHNOLOGY | NASA