Nasa has sent humans to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.
The Artemis 2 mission blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, carrying the four astronauts on a 10-day and 252,000 mile mission that will see them journey to the Moon.
The four will fly around the moon without stopping or even orbiting — then head straight back for a Pacific splashdown. They will set a new distance record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth as they zoom some 4,000 miles beyond the moon and then make a U-turn.
First, however, they will spend around 25 hours in a closer orbit to Earth. They will spend that time checking their spacecraft and conducting early tasks, before heading to orbit around the Moon.
Their journey has been repeatedly delayed by a host of technical problems, meaning that Nasa had to cancel a previous launch attempt and roll the spacecraft back off its launchpad, postponing liftoff by two months. Wednesday’s launch included some fears about more possible issues – including a problem with the system that blows up the rocket if it goes out of control – but all were overcome by engineers during the countdown.
Nasa and its astronauts stressed that Artemis II is a test mission and that it was possible that the crew would return before they actually made it towards lunar orbit.
Astronauts last flew to the moon during Apollo 17 in 1972. Nasa hopes that it will be able to put humans onto its surface again within the next two years, and China aims to do the same by 2030.
Artemis II is the opening shot of Nasa’s grand plans for a permanent moon base. The space program is aiming for a moon landing near the lunar south pole in 2028.
“The next era of exploration begins,” Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X.
The 322-foot rocket became the most powerful spacecraft ever launched by Nasa when it took off at 6.36pm local time. Prior to the crew boarding, more than 2.6 million litres of fuel was loaded into the spacecraft.
Best wishes already have started to pour in, including from England’s King Charles III to Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Hansen will become the first non-U. S. citizen to launch to the moon. The crew also includes Christina Koch and Victor Glover, the first woman and first Black astronaut, respectively, destined for the moon.
They are led by the mission commander, Reid Wiseman.
“In this historic moment, you stand as a bridge between nations and generations,” the king wrote in a letter to Hansen, “and I commend you for your courage, discipline and vision that have brought you to this threshold.”
Hailing the mission ahead of the launch, US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “We are WINNING, in Space, on Earth, and everywhere in between – Economically, Militarily, and now, BEYOND THE STARS.
“Nobody comes close! America doesn’t just compete, we DOMINATE, and the whole World is watching.
“God bless our incredible Astronauts, God bless NASA, and God bless the Greatest Nation ever to exist, the United States of America! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
With half the world’s population not yet born when NASA’s 12 moonwalkers left their boot prints in the gray lunar dust, Artemis offers a fresh beginning, NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said earlier this week.
“There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched. This is their Apollo,” said Fox, who was 4 when Apollo 17 closed out the era.
NASA is in it for the long haul this time. Unlike Apollo, which focused on fast flags and footprints in a breakneck race against the Soviet Union, Artemis is striving for a sustainable moon base elaborate enough to satisfy even the most hard-core science fiction fans. But make no mistake: Isaacman and the Trump Administration want the next boot prints to be made by Americans, not the Chinese.
Until Isaacman’s program makeover, Artemis III was crawling toward a moon landing no sooner than 2029. The billionaire spacewalker slid in a new Artemis III for 2027 so astronauts could practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. Astronauts’ momentous landing near the moon’s south pole shifted to Artemis IV in 2028 — two years before an anticipated Chinese crew’s arrival.
Like Apollo 13 — astronauts’ only moon landing miss — Artemis II will use a free-return, lunar flyby trajectory to get home with gravity’s tug and a minimum of gas. The gravity of both the moon and Earth will provide much if not most of the oomph to keep Orion on its out-and-back, figure-eight loop.
The danger is right up there for Artemis II. NASA has refused to release its risk assessment for the mission. Managers contend it’s better than 50-50 — the usual odds for a new rocket — but how much more is murky.
Additional reporting by agencies
