Liftoff! NASA launches mega Moon rocket, ushering new era of exploration, In a dazzling display of light and music, NASA launched the most powerful rocket ever made on a mission to the Moon on Wednesday. This launch marked the beginning of the space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis. At 01:47 (0647 GMT), the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center with a record 8.8 million pounds (39 meganewtons) of thrust.
Liftoff! NASA launches mega Moon rocket, ushering new era of exploration
“What you have done today will inspire generations to come, thank you!” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director, told cheering teammates.
The Orion spacecraft, which will orbit our nearest neighbor Earth in a test flight for later flights in which the first woman and the first person of color should touch down on lunar soil by the middle of the 2020s, was fixed to the rocket’s top. NASA said the spacecraft was on its way to the Moon about two hours after liftoff and later shared the first pictures of Earth slipping behind the craft.
“Now we are going back to the Moon, not just for the sake of going to the Moon, but to learn how to live on the Moon in order to prepare to send humans all the way to Mars,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told a news conference after the launch.
“This is the next beginning, this is the Artemis generation,” added Nelson, who said he watched the launch from the roof of the rocket assembly building along with a group of astronauts.
During the Apollo period, which ran from 1969 to 1972, America last sent astronauts to the Moon. This time, it plans to establish a long-term presence, possibly even a lunar space station, in order to become ready for a journey to Mars in the 2030s. The two-hour launch window, which opened at 1:04 am, was cut short by technical challenges, which caused some anxious moments as crews struggled to fix them.
First, engineers were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, but a team sent to the launch pad resolved the issue after about an hour, by tightening loose bolts. Later, the space agency reported that a radar site monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch, which had to be replaced. It was third time lucky for NASA after two previous launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons. The launch was also delayed due to weather setbacks including Hurricane Ian, which battered Florida in late September.
– ‘Extremely excited’ –
About 100,000 people were expected to have gathered along the coast to witness the historic event. Todd Garland drove from Frankfurt, Kentucky to watch from Cocoa Beach. Wearing an Artemis T-shirt, the 55-year-old told AFP tearfully: “This has been an experience I’ve looked forward to all my life.
“My first memory is my mother waking me up at two years old to watch the Moon landing and I’ve always wanted to see a launch ever since, and now I have.”
Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, added the launch was “part of America and what America is all about.”
– Far side of the Moon –
Two boosters, four strong engines, and the core stage’s quick detachment launched the Orion crew capsule into space. Although it will take several days for the capsule to reach the Moon, an upper stage push sent it on its journey.
In the meantime, the upper stage will release 10 CubeSats to conduct scientific research, one of which will unfold a sail powered by sunlight and do asteroid reconnaissance operations. Orion will take up a far-off orbit, traveling more than any other habitable spacecraft to date—40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side of the Moon—instead of making a landing on the surface.
The spacecraft will then start the return phase of its voyage. The heat shield of the capsule must be able to sustain a temperature half that of the Sun’s surface while traveling through the atmosphere. Even though Orion isn’t carrying any people at the moment, it does have three sensor-equipped dummies on board to help collect safety information for future crew members.
The mission will endure for 25 and a half days, and on December 11 it will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. After spending more than a decade developing the SLS rocket, NASA is counting on a successful mission. By the end of 2025, it will have spent more than $90 billion on its new lunar program, according to a public audit.
Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024, while Artemis 3 will see boots on lunar soil, no sooner than 2025. NASA hopes to settle into a yearly launch schedule , and will include international partners from Japan, Canada and Europe.