NASA launches first crewed lunar mission in half a century

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday (Apr 1) on NASA’s Artemis II mission, a high-stakes 10-day trip around the moon that marks the United States’ boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface this decade before China’s first crewed landing.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, topped with its Orion crew capsule, roared to life just before sunset at 10.35pm GMT (6.35am, Thursday, Singapore time) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center to lift its first crew of three US astronauts and a Canadian astronaut off Earth, a thunderous ascent leaving behind a towering column of thick white vapour.

The Artemis II crew of NASA astronauts ‌Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are poised for a nearly 10-day expedition around the moon and back, taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone.

“This is Jeremy, we are going for all humanity,” Hansen, strapped inside Orion, told launch control minutes before liftoff.

“Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, on this historic mission you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told the crew through a communications line from launch control.

“Good luck, godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go,” she added.