OREANDA-NEWS The American Orion spacecraft with four astronauts on board, launched as part of the Artemis II mission, is preparing to embark on a flight path to the Moon, NASA reports.

After midnight Moscow time, the engines will be turned on on the ship, which is in an elliptical orbit of the Earth. After about 20 minutes of operation, the ship's speed will increase to 11 km/s. This will take Orion out of Earth's orbit on a flight path to the moon.

The crew continues to check the spacecraft's systems, including deep space communications equipment, before leaving Earth orbit.

Orion, crewed by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Kristina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will fly around the Moon on the 6th day of the mission.

The ship was launched using an SLS heavy launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida. As part of the Artemis II mission, Orion will make only one orbit around the Moon. It should fly at a distance of 7.5 thousand km from its surface and return to Earth with a landing in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The flight duration will be 10 days.