Nasa launches most powerful rocket in history in first step toward return to moon

Nasa launched its most powerful rocket early on Wednesday as it sent an uncrewed capsule on the 25-day Artemis mission to orbit the moon and return safely to Earth.

The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with an Orion capsule perched atop it, cleared its Kennedy Space Center launchpad on the Florida coast just after takeoff at 1.48am local time, its four main engines and twin solid boosters lighting up the night sky.

The mission, called Artemis I, marks the inaugural flight of both the SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule. And it kicks off Nasa’s multi-mission Artemis program, which is focused on sending astronauts, including the first woman and the first person of colour, back to the moon’s surface by as early as 2025.

The SLS is meant to be the primary vehicle that will be used to transport humans to the vicinity of the moon. With Wednesday’s launch, Nasa intends to show that the combined SLS and Orion vehicles can safely do their jobs before astronauts ever climb aboard.

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About eight minutes after liftoff, the SLS entered Earth orbit and the main core of the rocket separated from the upper portion of the vehicle carrying Orion. Roughly an hour-and-a-half after launch, the upper stage’s engine will ignite for 18 minutes to send Orion on course to the moon.

In six days, Orion will come within 97km (60 miles) of the lunar surface, using the moon’s gravity to enter an elongated orbit. Orion needs to demonstrate that it can get in and out of lunar orbit before returning home, surviving re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.

Wednesday’s launch was the third time in the last two months that Nasa attempted to get this mission off the ground. The first try at the end of August was cancelled after the start of the launch window following a night of weather delays, hydrogen leaks, and a bad reading from a temperature sensor on one of the main engines.

A second launch attempt in early September was also postponed after a hydrogen leak emerged during propellant loading. Nasa replaced damaged hardware on the rocket before trying again. Nasa had then hoped to try for a third attempt in late September but opted to roll the spacecraft back to its main hangar to shelter it from approaching Hurricane Ian.

Nasa rolled the rocket back out to its launchpad less than two weeks ago, just in time for another storm, Hurricane Nicole, to hit Florida. This time, Nasa opted to leave the SLS rocket on its launchpad to weather the storm. The vehicle suffered little damage and engineers deemed it ready to fly. – Bloomberg