NASA have officially launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the moon on Wednesday, kicking off the space agency’s flagship program, Artemis.
The Space Launch System (SLS), towering at 32-storeys, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida at 01:47am with a record breaking 8.8 million pounds of thrust generated.
Fixed to the rocket was the Orion spaceship that will orbit Earth’s moon in a test run for later flights. This will then see the first woman and first person of colour to land on the moon by 2025.
Two previous attempts in August and September were aborted prior to launch because of technical difficulties. Now, the 25-day and 1.3 million mile trip marks NASA’s first few capable deep-space mission in 50 years.
The Orion spacecraft is expected to orbit around the moon for 6 days to collect data and allow mission controllers to assess the performance of the vessel.
America last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. For mythology geeks, Apollo and Artemis are twin gods from the Greek Pantheon, with Orion being a huntsman just like Artemis.
#MaltaDaily