As part of an ambitious plan to reach the Moon, the US space agency, NASA’s most powerful rocket Artemis today took off on the Moon mission. The 98 meter tall Artemis spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the US. The vehicle flew in the sky with a speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
This is a major step in the direction of the US to land astronauts on the Moon again after the end of the Apollo campaign 50 years ago. Twelve astronauts landed on the Moon during the six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.
The Artemis mission was interrupted several times, which led to significant cost overruns. A huge crowd of 15 thousand people had gathered to see Artemis. NASA is aiming to send four astronauts to the Moon on the next flight in 2024 and land humans there in early 2025.
According to NASA, a few minutes after the launch, the rocket left the Orion spacecraft towards the moon. On Monday, Orion will pass 96.5 kilometers of the Moon’s surface. It will also leave satellites in the orbit of the moon. After spending a few weeks in space, it will fall into the Pacific Ocean on December 11. Orion has sent a picture of Earth. NASA gave information about this by tweeting.