Moon rocket blasts off
Nasa’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard yesterday, bringing the US a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo programme 50 years ago. If all goes well during the three-week flight the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with splashdown in the Pacific in December. After years of delays, the rocket rose from Kennedy Space Centre, hitting 160kph within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top, ready to bust out of Earth orbit towards the moon two hours into the flight.