NASA's Artemis spacecraft has successfully reached the Moon after finally lifting off from Earth last week. According to a BBC report, the Orion capsule has swept 130 kilometers above the lunar surface and will now begin to enter a larger orbit.

It was off for 34 minutes during this maneuver, which began at 12:44 GMT and occurred on the far side of the moon.

At the time of the burn, Orion was 328 miles above the Moon and traveling at 8,083.73 km/h. Shortly after burning, it passed 81 miles over the moon, accelerating at 5,102 miles per hour. NASA says the mission has "exceeded expectations" so far since its launch last week.

The mission also sent back images of Earth that appear as tiny as a "pale blue dot" from 230,000 miles (370,149.12 km) away.

This is one of those days that you've been thinking about and dreaming about for a very long time," said NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville. "This morning, we just saw Earth behind the Moon, as we prepare to get humans back there in a few years. This is a game changer."

Ahead of that, NASA also shared a series of stunning Orion images on Saturday, showing the human-seeded capsule glowing against the darkness of space.

This will be the first time a space capsule has completed a flyby of the Moon in half a century. Artemis is an uncrewed mission designed to test a NASA Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft before astronauts go flying on a future mission. If the mission is successful, Artemis I will follow a human flight around the moon in 2024 and could lead to the landing of the first woman and first person of color on the moon the following year.

Howard Hu, director of the Orion programme, said last week's launch was "a historic day for human spaceflight". "It's the first step we're taking in long-term deep space exploration, not just for the US but for the world," he told the BBC. I think this is a historic day for NASA but it is also a historic day for all the people who love spaceflight and deep space exploration.