A crescent Earth as seen from the Artemis II Orion Integrity spacecraft, now over 46,000 km away. The spacecraft is located above the north-east coast of Brazil, where it is night-time

22/n

The serene view of the Pale Blue Crescent from the Artemis II Orion Integrity spacecraft this morning, now located 70,920 km away, high above the Pacific Ocean, west of Peru, as the astronauts grab some sleep after a hectic day yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs
23/n

@AkaSci This means they’re out of the elliptical earth orbit and into lunar trajectory?
@AkaSci For those not familiar with this, the next burn will be when Orion's elliptical orbit takes it close to the earth. The reason is that firing the engines for a fixed time will change its velocity by an amount Δv. For an initial velocity v, its kinetic energy will change to (1/2)m(v + Δv)² = (1/2)mv² + mvΔv + (1/2)m(Δv)². To reach the moon, you have to increase Orion's kinetic + potential energy, and the most efficient way to do that is when Orion's velocity is highest.