Astronauts of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission ignited their spacecraft engines late Thursday, departing Earth orbit on their journey towards the Moon.

The manoeuvre, known as the translunar injection, took place around 25 hours after launch, placing three US astronauts and one Canadian astronaut on a trajectory that will allow them to fly around the Moon early next week.

The Orion capsule left Earth orbit precisely on schedule and is now heading towards the Moon, with NASA indicating that initial reports confirm the operation proceeded smoothly.

On the sixth day of the mission, the astronauts are expected to reach a distance of approximately 252,000 miles from Earth, marking the farthest distance ever reached by humans, where the planet will appear the size of a basketball behind the far side of the Moon.