Moon-bound artemis ii crew enters lunar sphere of influence

NASA's Artemis II mission reached a major milestone on Monday as the four astronauts on board entered the moon's sphere of influence, where the lunar gravity starts to exert a stronger pull than Earth's.

Orion spacecraft begins lunar flyby, eyes on the dark side

The crew, consisting of Americans Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, made the transition about 39,000 miles from the moon and 232,000 miles from Earth four days, six hours and two minutes into the mission.

The next key event will be the lunar flyby later on Monday, venturing deeper into space than any humans before. NASA's deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission, Lori Glaze, expressed the team's excitement: