Artemis 2 ready to fly around the moon

WASHINGTON — The Artemis 2 mission will swing around the moon April 6, setting a distance record as astronauts study part of the lunar farside.

The Orion spacecraft performed a trajectory correction maneuver at 11:03 p.m. Eastern April 5, firing auxiliary thrusters on its service module for 17.5 seconds. The maneuver was officially designated Outbound Trajectory Correction-3, but was the first such maneuver after controllers canceled the first two planned burns because of the accuracy of the spacecraft's trajectory.

The crew also prepared for the lunar flyby, where they will spend about seven hours observing the moon during that closest approach. At an April 5 briefing, Kelsey Young, lunar science lead for Artemis 2, said the mission's science team had finalized that observing plan and uploaded it to the crew for their review.