NASA's Artemis II mission successfully lifted off from Florida's Space Coast Wednesday (April 1) around 6:35 p.m. EDT. But today (Thursday) marked the mission's next crucial step: the translunar injection burn, the long push that sends the spacecraft out of Earth's orbit and into deep space, where it will rendezvous with the moon about four days from now.

"[The burn] propels Orion on a path toward the moon and sets it on the free-return trajectory that will ultimately bring [the] crew back to Earth for splashdown," NASA officials wrote in the Artemis II press kit. "Though only two days into the mission, it essentially doubles as Orion's deorbit burn as well."