After two hurricanes, two months and a number of technical fixes, the most powerful space rocket in history is on course for the moon after lifting off from Florida early on Wednesday.
The spaceship lit the night sky as it rose from its launchpad. The 25-day, 1.3m-mile journey to the moon and back is the first crew capable deep-space mission for 50 years.
Three mannequins, a soft toy and new life-preservation systems are being tested on the Artemis 1 test flight.
The Artemis 2 and 3 flights are dependent on the success of the mission. The first crewed lunar landing since 1972 is expected to slip back a year, with both ferrying humans to and from the moon.
All men from the Apollo flights between 1969 and 1972 will be added to the list of moonwalkers. The twin sister of Apollo will land the first person of color after a mission of Artemis.
Much more than basic exploration is behind the return of Nasa.
"Why the moon?" The Guardian quoted Bill Nelson as saying last year. The goal isMars. We can learn how to survive on the moon if we only have to be three or four days away from Earth before we leave.
We go back to the moon to learn how to live there.
Construction of a lunar base camp is one of the ways that Nasa wants to establish a long-term human presence. The Moon to Mars vision includes commercial partners such as the heavy-lift Starship rocket that could be ready for its first flight as soon as next month.
After 50 years, it's time for Nasa to prove that it can send vehicles into deep space and return them to Earth.
The launches in August and September failed. Engineers discovered an engine cooling problem and were unable to fix it because of a faulty sensor.
Hurricane Ian forced the space agency to return the giant $4.1 billion rocket to its hangar.
On 4 November, Artemis came back to the launchpad, and stayed there through Hurricane Nicole. Mission managers gave a final go-ahead for launch after conducting minor repairs on electrical systems and finding a torn strip of Silicone weather covering.
Jim Free, Nasa's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said there had been a debate about pressing ahead with Wednesday's launch.
At the final decision poll, there was a discussion about making sure we understood and talked through all the issues.
The team did that. The group that cares the most about this rocket is the group that makes the decisions. I have never heard of overconfidence or cavalierness.
It was the most powerful rocket ever built, with 8.8 million pounds of thrust, which was 1.3 million more than the Apollo era's giant rockets.
According to Nasa, Artemis will fly farther than any other human-designed spaceship. It will travel from Earth to the far side of the moon in two and a half years.
The spaceship will stay in space longer than any other human craft, and will return home faster and hotter than before.
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