The historic Artemis II mission has launched, carrying the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Launching off on the largest rocket ever built by Nasa, the Orion spaceship is carrying four astronauts – three Americans and one Canadian – lifted off from the Nasa Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6.35pm Eastern Time.
Hours into the voyage, Nasa said the crew successfully concluded one of the mission’s early objectives to evaluate the manual handling qualities of Orion in space.
As the spacecraft left Earth’s atmosphere and made it’s way to the far side of the Moon, Commander Reid Wiseman said he cold see “the entire globe from pole to pole”, adding it was “the most spectacular moment and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” the BBC reported.
The mission involves a 10-day voyage that will take them around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. While they will not land on the lunar surface, Nasa hopes that the mission will play a key role in helping establish a permanent settlement on the Moon in future.
The launch comes after weeks of fuel leaks and other issues that caused a previous liftoff attempt to be cancelled at the last moment.
