Where is the Artemis II crew now and how long will it take to get to the moon?

Four astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday on a high-stakes flight around the moon, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century.

But NASA’s moonbound astronauts are not quite there yet.

NASA’s live tracker showed the Orion spacecraft was soaring about 38,000 miles from Earth and 233,713 miles from the moon as of 1:30 p.m. ET. The astronauts will spend much of the first 25 hours of their 10-day flight orbiting around Earth as they check out their capsule to make sure everything is working before hurdling toward the moon.

The astronauts have assumed manual control of their capsule and practiced steering it around the rocket’s detached upper stage, venturing as close as 33 feet. NASA wants to know how Orion handles in case the self-flying feature fails and the pilots need to take control.

Late Wednesday, the crew ran into their first onboard issue: a lunar loo malfunction. Mission Control guided astronaut Christina Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going Thursday morning.

Also Thursday, Mission Control was trying to warm things up inside the Orion capsule. It is 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the four astronauts were digging into suitcases for long-sleeved clothes.

At around 7:30 p.m. ET, they will fire the main engine that will blast them out of Earth’s orbit and propel them to the moon.

When will Artemis II reach the moon?

Commander Reid Wiseman along with pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen stand to become the most distant humans ever when their capsule zooms past the moon and continues another 4,000 miles beyond, before making a U-turn and tearing straight home to a splashdown in the Pacific.

If all goes according to plan, they’ll reach the moon on Monday, April 6.

During Monday’s lunar flyby, the moon will appear to be the size of a basketball held at arm’s length. The astronauts will take turns peering through Orion’s windows with cameras. If the lighting is right, they should see features never before viewed through human eyes. They’ll also catch snippets of a total solar eclipse, donning eclipse glasses as the moon briefly blocks the sun from their perspective and the corona is revealed.

“The translunar injection burn will send crew on an outbound trip of about four days and around the backside of the moon where they will ultimately create a figure eight extending over 230,000 miles from Earth before Orion returns home,” NASA said.

On flight day six, (April 8) Orion will reach its farthermost point from Earth as it sails 5,000 miles beyond the moon. That will surpass Apollo 13’s distance record, making Artemis astronauts the most remote travelers.

When will Artemis II return to Earth?

Once completed, the crew will make a four-day trip home using Earth’s gravitational pull. This free-return trajectory made famous in Apollo 13 relies on the moon and Earth’s gravity, minimizing the need for fuel.

The Orion capsule will splash down into the Pacific Ocean on flight day 10 — nine days, one hour and 46 minutes after liftoff.

Navy recovery ships will be stationed off the coast of San Diego as Orion parachutes into the ocean.

If everything goes to plan, in 10 days, recovery efforts for NASA’s Artemis II mission will happen off the San Diego coast. NASA expects splashdown to happen on Friday, Apr. 10 by 8 p.m. NBC 7’s Brooke Martell has the story.

What will the Artemis II astronauts eat during their mission?

With no stove or refrigerator on board, what do astronauts eat to sustain themselves on a trip around the moon?

According to NASA, the food selection is developed to support calorie needs, hydration and nutrient intake, while taking into account individual crew preferences. Meals must be shelf-stable and easy to consume.

Menus are designed to minimize crumbs, which can pose a danger if they clog spacecraft equipment or get into astronauts’ eyes.

The astronauts on Artemis II will feast on vegetable quiche, breakfast sausage, couscous with nuts, mango salad, granola with blueberries, barbecue beef brisket, broccoli au gratin, macaroni and cheese, spicy green beans, fruit salad, cauliflower and tortillas. Each astronaut is allotted two flavored beverages per day, which include coffee, tea, chocolate and vanilla shakes, apple cider, lemonade and mango-peach smoothie.

Astronauts will use water to rehydrate their meals and a food warmer to heat up their food.

To satisfy their sweet tooth, NASA is sending up cookies, cobbler, cake, chocolate and candy-coated almonds.

Artemis is NASA’s moonshot program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface of the moon by 2025.

What is the Artemis program?

The Artemis program is a multi-mission space campaign that will set the stage for astronauts to return to the lunar surface, “and for a long-term presence at the moon that will enable future crewed missions to Mars,” according to NASA.

The “Moon to Mars” plan involves establishing a new space station in lunar orbit and, eventually, a habitable Artemis base camp on the surface of the moon’s south pole to help support more deep space exploration.

NASA has announced five key missions in the Artemis program, with one completed so far. While these missions are mainly focused on lunar exploration, NASA says it plans on using the technology and research developed during the Artemis space flights to make the next giant leap for mankind: sending astronauts on a mission to Mars.

The first mission, Artemis I, launched on November 2022 to test NASA’s new mega moon rocket, the Space Launch System, and the Orion capsule. The uncrewed flight went on a 25-day journey to the moon and back.

Why are we going back to the moon?

Exploring the lunar surface will help NASA learn more about the sun, our planet and the solar system, and how humans can survive and thrive in a partial gravity environment — information that will then be used to develop equipment for a sustained presence on and around the moon. This includes life support and communications systems in order to deploy astronauts to the moon for extended stays.

This infrastructure will eventually be used as an outpost to resupply and refuel deep space exploration to the Red Planet and beyond.

Why is the program called Artemis?

Artemis is the mythological Greek goddess of the moon and Apollo’s twin sister. Apollo is also the namesake the space agency’s third lunar program, which ran from 1968 to 1972, and landed the first humans on the moon five decades ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.