NASA put on a light show sending the Artemis I mission on a record-breaking launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday morning.
Despite yet another liquid hydrogen leak headache and a new worry from a malfunctioning radar down range, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was able to work through countdown issues to send the Space Launch System rocket and its 8.8 million pounds of thrust up into space at 1:47 a.m. Eastern time.
It makes SLS the most powerful rocket to ever successfully launch into space.
“For once I might be speechless,” said NASA launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “This is your moment. ... You are part of a first. We are all part of something incredibly special, the first launch of Artemis, the first step of returning our country to the moon and on to Mars. ... The harder the climb, the better the view. We showed the Space Coast tonight what a beautiful view it is.”
Already the two solid rocket boosters and the core stage have done their job, pushing the Orion spacecraft up into low-Earth orbit.
The spacecraft then deployed its solar array wings and around 2:39 a.m. was to begin a maneuver to raise its altitude before beginning an 18-minute trans-lunar injection burn courtesy of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage to send Orion away from low-Earth orbit on its way to the moon.
Orion will spend 25 1/2 days with several orbits around the moon that will bring as close as 80 miles from its surface, and as far away as 40,000 miles, which will be about 268,000 miles from Earth, the farthest away any human-rated spacecraft has ever flown.
It’s slated to return to Earth splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11. Its return trip will bring it in hot, faster than any other human-rated spacecraft hitting mach 32 around 24,500 mph generating heat near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
———
