HOUSTON, April 3 --  The four Artemis astronauts fired up their spacecraft's engine to break away from Earth's orbit and zoomed towards the moon yesterday, a milestone that commits Nasa to the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half-a-century.

With enough thrust to accelerate a stationary car to highway driving speed in less than three seconds, the Orion capsule engine blasted the astronauts on their trajectory towards the moon, which they now will loop as part of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission.

The burn lasting just under six minutes propelled the astronauts on their three-day voyage towards Earth's natural satellite, the first since 1972.

"Looks like a good burn, we're confirming," mission control in Houston said.

"The cr...