The new era of deep space exploration has begun.
The most powerful NASA rocket ever built soared into the Florida early morning sky on the Artemis 1 mission, a risky and long-awaited test flight to send a next-generation space capsule to the moon and back. The liftoff took place at 1:45 a.m. Kennedy Space Center is located in Florida.
An uncrewed test flight around the moon is in the works. The shakedown mission is NASA's first flight of a crew- capable moon ship in nearly 50 years and it serves as the proving ground to see if SLS and Orion are ready to help return astronauts to the lunar surface.
The liftoff of Artemis 1 is underway. The commentator for NASA said during the broadcast of the launch. We return to the moon and beyond.
The Artemis launch director spoke to her team at mission control.
She said this is your time. The first launch of Artemis is the first step in returning our country to the moon and Mars. Generations will be inspired by what you have done.
Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates
More: 10 wild facts about the Artemis 1 moon mission
This morning's attempt saw a number of setbacks. The liquid hydrogen replenishment valve on Artemis 1's mobile launch tower was intermittently leaking while the SLS upper stage fueling process was going on. The "Red Crew" from NASA went to the tower to tighten packing nuts to stop the leak.
An issue with an ethernet switch at a radar site caused further uncertainty, prompting a "no-go" on the range until a replacement could be found. There was an issue with the internet while the launch was in progress.
This was the third launch attempt for Artemis 1. An initial attempt on Aug. 29 was scrubbed due to a glitch in the cooling process that one of the rocket's four main engines experienced. A second attempt on Sept. 3 was also scrubbed when a hydrogen leak was detected during the rocket's lengthy fueling process. SLS was then rolled back to KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs and to shelter it from Hurricane Ian, which slammed into Florida's Space Coast in late September.
Most recently, the amended target date of Nov. 12 was delayed to today because of Hurricane Nicole (which was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm following landfall). High winds produced by the storm tore a piece of insulative caulking away from the outside of the Orion spacecraft, prompting Artemis mission teams to study the issue and determine if a Nov. 16 launch was within safety parameters.
The damage from the storm was quickly assessed by the teams here at KSC and they decided that SLS and Orion were still good for the launch. The Artemis mission manager at NASA headquarters in Washington said he was good to go for the attempt on November 16.
The work the Artemis mission team has done in order to get SLS off the ground has been incredible. "If you were to ask me a couple of weeks ago, would we go through a storm like Hurricane Nicole and be able to turn around and be in good shape, I would have said, hey, chances are probably low." The team has been on fire.
After eight minutes after liftoff this morning, the SLS rocket's upper stage reached a point in the sky where it was able to carry out a number of tasks. The European Space Agency provided the service module which contained a plush toy and a doll.
If everything goes well, the SLS upper stage should fire its single engine to raise its altitude just under an hour after liftoff, and then fire again 98 minutes later to put the spaceship on course for the moon. The test flight nature of Artemis 1 means that something could always go wrong.
It's a new thing. The NASA's Artemis 1 mission manager said before the launch that it was a new rocket and a new spaceship. This is something that has not been done in a long time.
NASA engineers are on pins and needles, but Artemis 1 seems to have captured the public's imagination.
The Artemis 1 launch pad was struck by lightning.
The Artemis 1 mission is designed to show that the SLS rocket and Orion are ready to fly astronauts to the moon as part of a sustained program of lunar exploration that will eventually lead to crewed flights to Mars. NASA wants to use the vehicles to build a Gateway space station around the moon, then send crews there to use it as a home base for trips to the lunar south pole.
NASA said that Artemis 1's goals are difficult to achieve. It is important to show that the heat shield can survive the high altitudes of the moon and back. NASA wants to make sure that it's ready to keep astronauts alive in the moon. The program's first crewed flight around the moon, called Artemis 2, is slated to fly in 2024.
Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said before the liftoff that this was the first test of the deep space transportation systems. In that sense, it's important. Before we put crew on vehicles, we need to know about them.
The moon is expected to be reached by November 22, when it will approach within 60 miles of the surface. A new distance record for a crew- capable ship will be set when the path goes beyond the moon. It will take two weeks in space for the spaceship to get ready for the journey home. A splashdown in the Pacific Ocean will take place on December 11th.
Science experiments are carried out on the Artemis 1 mission. 10 cubesats were launched from the SLS rocket and will be sent to the moon. Some will go to the moon to look for traces of water ice, while others will try out new technologies. NEA Scout is going to use a solar sail to go to an asteroid.
NASA has designed a bright orange launch and entry suit for future astronauts, and one of them is Commander Campos. Two limbless manikins, dubbed Helga and Zohar, will test a vest that protects astronauts from the harmful radiation of deep space. More experiments like NASA's Biological Experiment 1 will try to understand how the deep space environment affects genes and DNA.
Artemis 1 will help humans explore deep space.
The twin sister of Apollo, NASA's Artemis program aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon in less than 10 years.
There is a strange blend of space history and future promise. The Apollo 10 mission sent three astronauts to the moon months before the first landing on Apollo 11. Tom Stafford was invited to the launch by NASA. Solid rocket booster segments and space shuttle engines power the SLS rocket.
The new SLS rocket is more powerful than the old Apollo rockets because it has more solid rocket boosters.
The craft has new things. It's 30% larger than an Apollo capsule and has four astronauts in it. The heat shield is the largest of its kind yet to fly. The European Space Agency will fly European astronauts on future Artemis flights thanks to the service module built by Airbus.
The crewed lunar landers, Gateway space station habitats and other components will be built by private companies. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that the model used for the International Space Station will be a template for missions to Mars. NASA isn't likely to send a crew to Mars until at least the late 2030s, he said.
Nelson told Space.com that the Artemis program's goal is to explore. The country was built with a frontier.
Artemis 1 mission live updates are available on our page.
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