Four astronauts embarked on a historic voyage towards the moon Wednesday, the first lunar mission in more than 50 years. Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, the 32-story rocket rose from NASA's Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered.
The team includes Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Five minutes into the flight, Commander Wiseman noted their target: "We have a beautiful moonrise, we're headed right at it."
The launch overcame last-minute technical issues, including bad battery sensors and communication problems with the rocket's flight termination system. To NASA's relief, no significant hydrogen leaks occurred during fueling.
The mission marks a series of historic accomplishments: it will send the first person of color, the first woman, and the first non-American on a lunar mission. Unlike Apollo, Artemis is designed to allow the United States to repeatedly return to the Moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent base.
The astronauts will check out their capsule in orbit around Earth for the first 25 hours of their 10-day test flight. They will then fire the main engine to propel them to the moon, zooming past it and continuing another 6,400 kilometers beyond before turning home for a Pacific splashdown. This will set a record for the farthest distance from Earth any human has traveled.
The voyage aims to pave the way for a Moon landing in 2028. The current era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort to compete with China, which aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030.