NASA launches historic Artemis I from Florida
26-day mission sets sights on lunar orbit
After several high-profile delays brought on by hardware and hurricanes, a towering rocket emblazoned with NASA logos blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, finally kicking off a monthlong mission to the moon that harks back to the Apollo days more than 50 years ago.
At 1:47 a.m. EST, the multibillion-dollar Space Launch System’s four main engines and two solid rocket boosters rumbled to life at Kennedy Space Center with a whopping 8.8 million pounds of thrust, making it the world’s most powerful operational rocket. It marked SLS’ first launch under the umbrella of NASA’S Artemis program and third attempt overall.
Less than 20 minutes into flight, the Orion capsule secured atop the rocket began deploying its solar arrays, kicking off an uncrewed 26-day mission to lunar orbit. With help from the United Launch Alliance-built upper stage, Orion fired off toward the moon – known as the translunar injection – just after 3:30 a.m. EST.
“It is not by chance that you are here today,” Charlie Blackwell-thompson, NASA’S Artemis launch director, told a packed Launch Control Center after liftoff. “I want you to look around, look around at this team, and know that you have earned it. You have earned your place in the room; you have earned this moment; you have earned your place in history.”
“You are part of a first that doesn’t
come along very often – once in a career, maybe,” Blackwell-thompson said. “But we are all part of something incredibly special: the first launch of Artemis. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars.”
Artemis I is NASA’S first demonstration flight under the program and, if all goes well, will make room for a followup mission sometime before 2025. If schedules hold, Artemis II will include a similar flight profile to Wednesday’s launch but also send astronauts in the Orion capsule. Artemis III will then attempt to put two people on the surface before 2030.
Over 26 days, the Lockheed Martinbuilt Orion capsule will have to perform a complicated series of maneuvers to enter lunar orbit, circle the moon, then depart before returning to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
After splashdown, teams will pluck the 16-foot-diameter spacecraft out of
waters off the coast of California using a San Antonio-class Navy ship. That class of amphibious ship is ideal for capsule recovery since it includes a built-in dock and large helicopter landing deck. The latter will be especially important during future Artemis missions that include astronauts since they’ll need to be flown back to land after splashdown.
The Artemis program is a seriously expensive attempt at establishing a long-term foothold on the moon and, someday, Mars. According to NASA’S own inspector general, the program could run as high as $93 billion through 2025, a staggering number for a program that has been delayed years and flown once so far. Each launch is projected to cost about $4.1 billion.
If everything goes according to plan, though, SLS and Orion will act as the architecture that makes those goals happen.