Man could be living on the moon before the end of the decade, a leading Nasa official has said following the successful launch of the Artemis rocket. After a series of failed launch attempts earlier in the year, Artemis 1 took off on Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The uncrewed mission around the moon will pave the way for a crewed flight test and future human lunar exploration. The Artemis is carrying the Orion lunar spacecraft which is manned with a manikin – a model of the human body used to measure the impacts of the flight on the body.
Howard Hu, the Orion programme manager, said the launch was a “historic day for human space flight”. He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ”It’s the first step we’re taking to long-term deep space exploration, for not just the United States but for the world.
