Wednesday morning, the next-generation, multibillion-dollar Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the unmanned Orion spacecraft in tow.
In the first step of a program to return humans to the moon, NASA’s most powerful rocket has been launched into orbit.
Wednesday morning, the next-generation, multibillion-dollar Space Launch System lifted out from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the Orion spacecraft in tow.
It blasted off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 1:47 a.m. local time (6:47 a.m. UK), around forty minutes into a two-hour launch window, as a result of delayed leak repairs and malfunctioning communications equipment.
The unmanned trip marks the beginning of NASA’s Artemis program, which will eventually send men to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
The Wednesday morning launch of Artemis 1 was delayed by many delays dating back to the summer, but the breathtaking photographs captured from the east coast of the United States made the wait worthwhile.
Director of launch Charlie Blackwell-Thompson informed her team: “We are all a part of something extraordinarily unique: the first launch of Artemis. The initial step in returning our nation to the moon and Mars. What you have accomplished today will inspire future generations.”
What impact will the launch have?
At launch, the mega-rocket generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust, significantly more than any previous NASA rocket, and its two boosters and four RS-25 engines also generated a great deal of power.
Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, watched the event occur from the launch facility’s roof and remarked, “You knew there was some energy being expended over there.
Once in orbit, a portion of the rocket’s boosters separated and returned to Earth, leaving Orion and the upper portion of the rocket in space.
Each of Orion’s four solar arrays can generate 11 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power two homes with three bedrooms.
All of this occurred within the first hour of a 26-day mission during which the rocket and Orion will travel to the moon and beyond before returning home. Both are outfitted with cameras to transmit data and photographs while in interstellar space.
While in space, it will launch ten miniaturized satellites that will conduct a range of tasks, including researching the effects of radiation on yeast DNA and searching for ice on the moon.
The test mission is also heavily focused on the weather, with galactic cosmic rays representing the greatest risk to future crews.
A great inheritance
Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 will be launched in the years to come; Artemis 2 will be a crewed mission similar to Artemis 1 and will launch in 2024.
Artemis 3 will advance by landing its crew on the surface of the moon. This launch, scheduled for 2025, will make history by sending a woman and a person of color to the moon for the first time.
NASA intends to use the Artemis program to construct a base camp and perform annual expeditions, as well as serve as a test bed for more ambitious missions, beginning with sending a human to Mars.
Mr. Nelson stated that Artemis “belongs to a wonderful legacy.”
He continued, “It did not finish with Apollo 17.”
“This time, we’re going back to learn, and then we’re going to Mars with humans.”
