For the first time in half a century, NASA has a spaceship designed for humans.
On its first lunar flight, the new spaceship is trying to prove that it can carry astronauts on its next journey around the moon.
NASA wants to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in 42 years.
This new moon landing is just the beginning of NASA's plans to build a permanent base on the moon and set up a new space station. The agency wants to send astronauts to Mars.
"We're going back to the moon this time to live, to learn, to develop the technologies and the equipment and the instruments and the systems to venture further out," said Bill Nelson, NASA's Administrator.
Future astronauts might be affected by the deep-space radiation levels that are being tested on the moon with a set of mannequins inside. $50 billion of investment is riding on the success of this mission, which was launched on November 15. The spaceship was built in 2005.
On Friday, flight controllers told the spaceship to fire its maneuvering engine and push itself into an elliptical path around the moon that should carry it more than two hundred thousand miles from Earth.
A cruise around the moon is a big step in the mission. It won't be a success until Artemis I is able to return to Earth, survive a fiery plummet through the atmosphere, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
The biggest challenge of the mission is that. The heat shield on the bottom of the capsule is the most important thing that can be done to keep the astronauts safe.
Nelson said that it would be a successful mission if we achieved nothing. The primary objective is to test the new heat shield and material for the first time.
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