NASA Lifts Off First Crewed Moon Mission in Over Five Decades

(MENAFN) NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission roared to life Wednesday, as four astronauts lifted off from Florida on the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century — a defining moment in humanity's return to deep space.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, thundered off the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time (2235 GMT), dispatching its crew on a historic 10-day voyage around the Moon and back. Aboard are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, joined by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The countdown experienced a brief hold at the T-10 minute mark before proceeding without further disruption. Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, NASA confirmed the main engine cutoff of the SLS core stage, followed by the successful separation of the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and Orion spacecraft — marking the clean completion of the rocket's first major propulsion phase.

Twenty-four minutes into the flight, Orion's solar array wings unfurled completely and began generating power, each wing housing roughly 15,000 solar cells engineered to convert sunlight into electricity. Engineers on the ground then worked alongside the crew to transition the spacecraft from launch to active flight operations as teams began systematically checking critical onboard systems.

At the 49-minute mark, the SLS rocket's upper stage reignited, propelling Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second scheduled burn will push the spacecraft into a high Earth orbit stretching approximately 73,600 kilometres above the planet's surface, after which Orion will separate and continue its outbound journey independently.

The mission's centrepiece arrives on April 6, when the crew conducts a planned multi-hour lunar flyby — during which the astronauts are expected to photograph and observe the Moon's surface, including portions of the far side seldom glimpsed by human eyes. The crew will also carry out a series of human health investigations throughout the duration of the flight, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean upon their return to Earth.

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya captured the gravity of the moment: "Artemis II is a test flight, and the test has just begun. The team that built this vehicle, repaired it, and prepared it for flight has given our crew the machine they need to go prove what it can do."

As NASA's inaugural crewed mission under the Artemis program, the flight will put life support systems through their paces with astronauts aboard, laying critical groundwork for a sustained human presence on the Moon and setting the stage for future missions to Mars. When the crew reaches their furthest point from Earth, they will have ventured deeper into space — and closer to the Moon — than any humans in more than 50 years.

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