With a deafening noise, NASA’s new mega rocket, the most powerful in the world, took off on Wednesday from Florida, heading for the Moon, for the first unmanned mission of the US space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis.
The rocket, named SLS, lit up the sky at 1:47 a.m. EST at Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern United States.
NASA later confirmed that the spacecraft was on the correct course for the Moon, and released first images taken by the capsule of Earth slowly receding behind it.
The third launch attempt will therefore have been the right one, after two tests canceled at the last minute this summer due to technical problems, then two hurricanes having further postponed take-off by several weeks.
The Artemis 1 mission should last 25 days in total, and many stages could still pose problems, but the first takeoff of this 98-meter-tall giant, in development for more than a decade, already represents a huge success for the American space agency.
The final “go” was given by NASA’s first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “What you have accomplished today will inspire generations to come,” she told her teams after takeoff.
Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, this test flight, which will circumnavigate the Moon without landing there and without an astronaut on board, should confirm that the vehicle is safe for a future crew.
It marks the great start of the Artemis program, which aims to send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon. The goal is to establish a lasting human presence there.
“We’re going back to the moon […] to learn how to live on the Moon, with the goal of preparing us to send humans to Mars,” NASA boss Bill Nelson said at a post-launch press conference.
He said he witnessed the event from the roof of the huge rocket assembly building, a few kilometers from launch pad 39B, in the company of many astronauts.
In total, some 100,000 people were expected to admire the spectacle, especially from the surrounding beaches.
“My very first memory is of my mother waking me up to watch the moon landing, I’ve always wanted to see a liftoff ever since, and now it’s here,” Todd Garland, 55, told AFP with tears in his eyes on Cocoa Beach.
25 day mission
The takeoff took place with a delay of forty minutes because of a hydrogen leak, finally repaired, during the operations of filling the tanks of the rocket with its cryogenic fuel.
This summer, the first take-off attempt was canceled at the last moment due to a faulty sensor, and the second due to an uncontrolled hydrogen leak.
After these technical problems, two hurricanes – Ian then Nicole – successively threatened the rocket, postponing take-off by several weeks.
Just after takeoff, crews from the control center in Houston, Texas, took over.
After a few minutes, the two white boosters and the orange main stage separated, falling back into the ocean. Then a final push from the upper stage put the Orion capsule on its way to the Moon, which it will reach in a few days.
After a flyby just about 100 km from the lunar surface, the spacecraft will be placed in a distant orbit for about a week, and will venture up to 64,000 km behind the Moon – a record for a habitable capsule.
Finally, Orion will begin its return to Earth, testing its heat shield, the largest ever built. It will have to withstand a temperature half as high as the surface of the Sun while passing through the atmosphere.
Landing in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for December 11.
New era
After the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo missions, then the space shuttles, SLS must bring NASA into a new era of human exploration, this time of deep space.
In 2024, Artémis 2 must take astronauts to the Moon, still without landing there. An honor reserved for the crew of Artemis 3, in 2025 at the earliest.
NASA then envisages one mission per year, to build a space station in orbit around the Moon, and a base on its South Pole.
The goal is to test new equipment there: suits, vehicle, mini-electric power plant, use of ice water on site… All in order to establish a lasting human presence there.
This experiment should prepare a manned flight to Mars, perhaps in the late 2030s.