 of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160 kph) within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top, ready to bust out of Earth orbit toward the moon not quite two hours into the flight. The moonshot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the pad. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Forced back indoors by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, the rocket stood its ground outside as Nicole swept through last week with gusts of more than 80 mph (130 kph). Although the wind peeled away a 10-foot (3-meter) strip of caulking high up near the capsule, managers gave the green light for the launch. 'For the Artemis generation, this is for you,' launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said shortly before liftoff, referring to young people who were not alive for Apollo. The liftoff marked the start of Nasa's Artemis lunar-exploration program, named after Apollo's mythological twin sister. The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025. The 322-foot (98-meter) SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built by Nasa, with more thrust than either the space shuttle or the mighty Saturn V that carried men to the moon. A series){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Nasa has finally launched its new moon rocket and taking a step closer to returning humans to the lunar surface.
The long-delayed Space Launch System blasted off early this morning on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard.
If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.
After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160 kph) within seconds.