Overview
- Orion, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, is in high Earth orbit ahead of a planned engine burn that will send the crew toward the Moon.
- NASA reported a short post‑launch communications loss that is now fixed and said engineers are working a warning tied to the spacecraft’s toilet controller.
- The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen—will follow a free‑return path past the Moon’s far side that brings them back to Earth without a landing.
- If systems check out, the mission will run about 10 days with splashdown in the Pacific after Orion travels beyond 400,000 kilometers from Earth, farther than any prior human flight.
- International payloads are aboard, including Argentina’s ATENEA CubeSat, highlighting global roles as Artemis builds toward a surface return later this decade.