NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is finally headed towards the Moon

NASA’s next-generation rocket, the colossal Next-Generation Rocket, was launched into space with a loud roar that lit up night skies. It went into orbit on Wednesday for the first time. The Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, took off at 1:47AM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, signaling the start of a bold new era for the US government’s space program.

It also marks a major success for NASA’s Artemis program to return to the Moon, which has been plagued by Many years of delays, development mishapsAndBudget overruns amount to billions of dollars. During the past few months both hurricanes and technical difficulties caused launch delays — including two scrubs. Then, tonight, engineers managed to fix both an intermittent hydrogen leak and a “bad ethernet switch” in the hours just before launch.

NASA can now put many of those problems in the rear-view as it looks ahead to the program’s future.

“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, She gave her approval for the launch.

The SLS carried the Orion capsule up to a height of just over 4,000 km before they separated. The core stage of rocket was then returned to Earth and fell into the Pacific Ocean. (The solid boosters, which had separated even earlier than the SLS, also fell into the Atlantic. Orion will continue to the Moon and orbit it for several days before returning home to Earth. On December 11, the capsule will splash down in ocean. For this mission, Orion is uncrewed — save for a trio of mannequins, two of which were fitted with sensors to measure radiation levels. 

One of the main goals of this flight is testing Orion’s heat shield, which will have to endure temperatures of 2,800 degrees Celsius as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. NASA will also be testing radiation shielding and sensors as well as navigation and communication equipment. 

The SLS launch was also a test of NASA’s most powerful rocket configuration yet, a prerequisite for future deep space missions. Artemis I, the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion, stands 322 feet — 17 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty — and weighs 5.75 million pounds. SLS will produce 8.8million pounds of maximum thrust during launch and ascent. This is 15 percent more than the Saturn V rocket.

It was originally meant to launch in 2017, but it has now been retired. Consistently exceeded budgetAnd behind schedule. NASA was accused of not being transparent by government auditors about cost overruns that added approximately $1.8 million to the final budget. 

It was ready for launch in the end of this year. After Engine No. 3 failed to reach the required temperature, the first attempt at launching was abandoned on August 29th. 3 failed to reach the appropriate temperature to allow for the launch — something that NASA later blamed on a Possiblely defective sensor. On September 3, NASA made another attempt to launch the rocket, but had to scrub again when a persistent hydrogen leak appeared during fueling, defying engineers’ repeated attempts to troubleshoot the issue. Once the leaks got figured out, Hurricanes Ian and Nicole delayed NASA’s launch schedule even further, to November 16.

Despite the fact that the weather cooperated this time, hydrogen was still an issue. When an ‘intermittent’ hydrogen leak emerged, NASA sent a crew of three technicians, known as a ‘Red Crew’ to the launch pad itself. They had to tighten bolts in order to fix the leaky valve. Mobile Launcher — the massive platform that holds the giant rocket. They succeeded. Then the Space Force noticed that one of their radar systems needed for the launch wasn’t working properly. Now, an Ethernet SwitchIt took over an hour to replace the part. After that, the mission was simple.

The Orion spacecraft successfully entered trans-lunar orbit just two hours after launch. It began the next leg in its 26-day journey. The Artemis program’s next flight, scheduled for 2024, will transport a crew of astronauts to the Moon and back, without landing. NASA will then launch the first crewed Moon landers in 2025. This landing will also include the first woman to walk on the Moon and the first person of colour.