NASA's Artemis I bound for lunar orbit, and history

The new launch vehicle is sending an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon in a four- to six-week mission to prepare for landing humans on the moon by 2025.

Fifty years after the last astronaut left the moon, the United States is preparing to return to the lunar surface with the launch of Artemis I early Wednesday with a new rocket that is the most powerful in the world and a new space capsule on an uncrewed test flight around the moon and back.

Artemis I lifted off at 1:47 a.m. EST. Four previous launch attempts were delayed, twice by mechanical issues, twice by weather.

Artemis I won't land on the moon — it will circle it and return to Earth. The second Artemis mission, with a crew of four, will fly around the moon in 2024 without landing. A third mission will put astronauts on the moon a year or two later.

The four- to six-week flight will test NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, a super-heavy-lift launch vehicle with 15% more thrust than the iconic Saturn V of the manned Apollo missions.