Where is Artemis II going?

CBS

Artemis II is a flight to the moon — but the astronauts will not land on the moon or go into orbit around it. Instead, they will loop behind it and get an unprecedented view of the far side of the moon.

In the process, they’re expected to set a record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth: 252,000 miles.

The crew will spend their first 24 hours after launch in an elliptical orbit around the Earth. Then, if all goes according to plan, a crucial engine firing called the “trans-lunar injection,” or TLI, will boost the ship’s velocity by about 900 mph, just enough to push it out of Earth orbit to begin the four-day coast to the moon.

The spacecraft will be on a “free return” trajectory, using lunar gravity to bend the ship’s path back toward Earth, where it will return for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.