Giving an update on the 10-day Artemis II mission, NASA officials said the crew had a further 241,400 kilometres to travel to reach their destination for a lunar flyby that will take them deeper into space than anyone has gone before.
The elite team of three Americans and one Canadian, who launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday evening, earlier in the day cleared earth orbit.
The Orion spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it around the moon and then use the natural satellite's gravity for a "free" return journey.
As the module passes 6437km beyond the far side of the moon, the crew will lose communication with the earth for around 40 minutes.
The mission is testing technologies needed for long-term lunar exploration and manned voyages to mars.
One of the tasks carried out by the astronauts has been measuring how loud the toilet is after previous issues were fixed.
Speaking at a news conference, Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA's acting deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said the mission continues to perform well and the crew is in great spirits.
Referring to one of the spectacular images of the earth taken from the capsule by mission commander Reid Wiseman, she said it was like a collective selfie.Â
"It's great to think that, with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image," she said.
"We continue to learn all about our spacecraft as we operate in deep space with crew for the first time, and it's important to remind ourselves of that as we learn a little bit more day by day."
Giving details of the crews activities, Judd Frieling, Artemis II ascent flight director, said they had spoken to their families.
"And they also did another noise characterisation of how loud the toilet was. So we performed that," Frieling said.
While the astronauts will not touch down on the moon, the Artemis II mission paves the way for a future lunar landing and also lays the foundation to send a crew to mars.
The mission previously had to be postponed by two months because of hydrogen fuel leaks and clogged helium lines.
The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The agency is seeking to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China does in about 2030.
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