On Monday, the capsule reached the moon and passed within 80 miles of the surface.

As the crew capsule and its three test dummies were on the far side of the moon, the close approach happened.

Flight controllers in Houston didn't know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule came back from behind the moon.

It is the first time a capsule has visited the moon since the Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1 billion test flight.

The landing sites of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 were the first to land on the moon.

The moon was visible in the video beamed back earlier in the morning, as the capsule closed the final few thousand miles since it blasted off last week.

The flight director said that this was one of those days that he had been thinking about for a long time.

As the capsule swung out from behind the moon, onboard cameras sent a picture of Earth.

The moon needed to be flung around to pick up speed. If everything goes well, the capsule will be put in that space on 1 Friday.

The distance record for a spaceship for astronauts was set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Next Monday it will reach a maximum distance of 270,000 miles.

The capsule will travel to the moon for a week. There is a splashdown on the 11th of December.

A touchdown will not come until Nasa astronauts attempt a lunar landing with the help of a private company. The astronauts will ride into the moon in the early part of the 20th century.