NASA Launches Massive Artemis I Rocket in First Step Toward Return to Moon
NASA launched its most powerful rocket in 50 years early Wednesday, sending an uncrewed capsule skyward on a 25-day mission to orbit the moon and return safely to Earth.
The agency's Space Launch System rocket, with an Orion capsule perched atop it, cleared its Kennedy Space Center launchpad on the Florida coast just after takeoff at 1:48 a.m. local time, its four main engines and twin solid boosters lighting up the night sky.
The mission, called Artemis I, marks the inaugural flight of both the SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule. And it kicks off NASA's multi-mission Artemis program, which is focused on sending astronauts, including the first woman and the first person of color, back to the moon's surface by as early as 2025.
The SLS, built by Boeing Co., is meant to be the primary vehicle that will be used to transport humans to the vicinity of the moon; the Orion crew capsule is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. With Wednesday's launch, NASA intends to show that the combined SLS and Orion vehicles can safely do their jobs before astronauts ever climb aboard.
About eight minutes after liftoff, the SLS entered Earth orbit and the main core of the rocket separated from the upper portion of the vehicle carrying Orion. Roughly an hour-and-a-half after launch, the upper stage's engine will ignite for 18 minutes to send Orion on course to the moon.
In six days, Orion will come within 60 miles (97 kilometers) of the lunar surface, using the moon's gravity to enter an elongated orbit. Orion needs to demonstrate that it can get in and out of lunar orbit before returning home, surviving reentry in Earth's atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11.
Wednesday's launch was the third time in the last two months that
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