The historic Artemis-1 mission took flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of anticipation. The milestone event kicked off a journey that will send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon, paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century. (CNN)
According to Space.com, Artemis-1 is NASA’s third attempt to launch the SLS vehicle and Orion spacecraft. The first Artemis 1 attempt, on Aug. 29, was scrubbed due to a glitch in the cooling process of one of the rocket’s four main engines. And also, a second attempt followed on Sept. 3. That too, was scrubbed, when the rocket began leaking hydrogen during the fueling process. The SLS vehicle was then rolled back into KSC’s gargantuan Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs and analysis and to shelter it from Hurricane Ian as the storm made landfall in late September.
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And also, during this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown.
However, it will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon throughout about a four to six-week mission. (NASA)
Featured image credit: NASA
