'Nothing normal about this': Artemis II astronauts on having humans 250,000 miles away in space

The Artemis II spacecraft is on its way to the Moon after Orion's main engine fired for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 pm EDT. This completed the translunar injection (TLI) burn, which has put the spacecraft on track to leave Earth's orbit and gave a forceful push towards the Moon. "Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds," NASA said. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen are on board Orion and later shared their experience of the TLI, which was pretty "intense", Wiseman, the mission commander, said in the first live stream from space. "The translunar injection was a pretty intense moment," Wiseman said, with Christina adding that things started falling around them because of the force with which the injection happens.

The livestream from Orion saw all four astronauts huddled in a pretty tight space. They shared the experience they had following the launch, the work they did, and how they are sleeping, among other things. Victor Glover said they were surprised when the mission launched on Day 1 itself. He said that the engineers and the launch team had been working for weeks. Christina said the launch was smoother than they expected. "One of the biggest surprises was how smooth the launch felt," Koch said. Speaking of the mission's significance, Wiseman said that what humans have achieved with this task is huge. Speaking en route to the Moon, he said, "There is nothing normal about this setting for humans. We are 250,000 miles away, and that is a herculean effort. We are just now realising the gravity of it all."

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How is Artemis II crew sleeping on Orion?

The crew also talked about what they have been doing on the capsule since the launch. They shared they have been pretty busy and had a meal together after several hours. Wiseman shared they are trying to get comfortable with their nap positions, with Koch "sleeping like a bat", hanging upside down. She said it was "a comfortable position for her" and would remain there if no one “kicks her out.”

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Artemis II astronauts tell what Earth looks like from space

The crew saw the whole Earth from one window of the capsule, which felt surreal. Talking about what Earth looked like from above, Glover said, "We want to tell everyone that you look amazing. You look like one thing. We are all one people." He added, "We've got to give ourselves a mission we can hold on to for the rest of our lives. This has happened when we have differences. Imagine what we can do when we put those differences aside and come together."

Artemis II Orion is scheduled to reach the Moon on April 6, from where it will carry out a lunar flyby and return home using the Moon's gravity.