NASA's Artemis 1, the most powerful space rocket in history, has finally launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida today and is headed for the moon after a number of technical and natural difficulties.
Here are five points you need to know about NASA's Artemis I mission:
According to NASA, this is the most powerful rocket in the world and flies farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a four to six-week mission. Orion will spend more time in space than any other ship for astronauts without docking to a space station, and it will return home faster and hotter than ever before.
According to the Nature Magazine, The launch put an uncrewed astronaut capsule, called Orion, into Earth orbit and towards a planned course to fly past the Moon and back over the next 26 days. The flight, known as Artemis I, will test whether the rocket and capsule will be able to transport humans safely, while carrying a number of scientific experiments.
"This is a mission that truly will do what hasn't been done and learn what isn't known," said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission."
According to the NASA, this mission is just the first in what's expected to be a long series of increasingly difficult Artemis missions as the agency works toward its goal of establishing a permanent outpost on the Moon. Artemis II will follow a similar path as Artemis I but will have astronauts on board. Artemis III, slated for later this decade, is expected to land a woman and a person of colour on the lunar surface for the first time.
The mission was scheduled twice in the past but couldn't be carried out successfully. According to the Washington Post, Artemis 1 was first scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 29, but a problem with one of the engines kept the spacecraft grounded. Then, a fuel leak scrapped another launch attempt on September 3. Later in the month, Hurricane Ian caused yet another delay.
