NASA’s next-generation rocket began an unmanned journey around the moon and back to Earth on Wednesday (11/16). The huge rocket was launched hours ago from Florida and made its debut flight 50 years after the last lunar mission of the Apollo era.
The much-delayed launch kicked off Apollo’s successor program, Artemis, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and build a sustainable station there as a stepping stone for future human exploration of Mars.
The 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:47 a.m., piercing the darkness above Cape Canaveral with a fiery, orange-red tail. Named after the ancient Greek goddess of hunting and twin sister of Apollo, Artemis aims to send astronauts to the moon as early as 2025.
NASA Director Bill Nelson at a press conference later praised the rocket’s launch, calling it the “next start” and the “Artemis generation.” The Artemis I mission involved a 25-day flight to the constellation Orion, bringing the capsule within 97km of the lunar surface before flying 64,400km beyond the moon and back to Earth. The capsule is thought to have crashed into the sea on December 11. [ka/ab]
