NASA has canceled the first outbound trajectory correction maneuver for the Artemis II mission after confirming that the Orion spacecraft is on a precise path toward its lunar flyby scheduled for April 6.
Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston made the decision on April 3, skipping the planned eight-second burn at 18:49 EDT that would have adjusted Orion’s velocity by 0.7 feet per second, or about 0.21 meters per second. The agency stated that Orion remains on the correct trajectory following the translunar injection burn completed on April 2, with any needed adjustments possible in one of the two remaining correction maneuvers.
Launched on April 1, 2026, at 18:35 EDT from Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B aboard the Space Launch System rocket, Artemis II carries astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. This marks the first crewed Artemis mission and the first lunar flyby with humans since Apollo in 1972, lasting about ten days.
By April 4, Orion had surpassed the halfway point to the Moon, positioned around 160,000 kilometers from Earth. The crew has conducted exercise, medical response drills, cabin preparations for lunar observations, and tests of the deep space emergency communications system. Astronaut Christina Koch described the view of the Moon from a hatch as a beautiful sight. Orion is set to enter the Moon’s sphere of influence on April 5 for a flyby of the far side on April 6, during which the crew will perform scientific observations and high-resolution imaging, with about 20% of the far side expected to be sunlit.