Liftoff! NASA's mighty Artemis II rocket launches, sending astronauts toward moon
Rick Neale- NASA's Artemis II mission is sending four astronauts on a trip around the moon.
- The 10-day mission launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard NASA"s huge Space Launch System rocket.
- Artemis II is a key step in NASA's long-term plan to establish a permanent base on the moon.
America is sending astronauts back to the moon for the first time in more than half a century.
Towering taller than the Statue of Liberty, NASA's 322-foot Space Launch System rocket — featuring an orange core stage flanked by twin white solid rocket boosters — rumbled skyward off pad 39B against a blue backdrop at Kennedy Space Center while throngs of spectators watched across Florida's Space Coast.
Wearing orange spacesuits, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist) and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist) strapped into an Orion spacecraft atop their colossal rocket hours ahead of the historic liftoff at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, April 1.
Now, the Artemis II crew is scheduled to perform a series of spacecraft system checks over about a 23-hour span in Earth orbit. After wrapping up their first flight day, they will power away on their deep-space trek around the moon and back.
By Day Six, the astronauts will swing around the far side of the moon by a cushion ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 miles. And they may break the record for the farthest anyone has traveled from Earth, besting the 248,655-mile mark set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 crew.
After a return journey toward Earth, the Orion should re-enter the atmosphere on Day 10 and culminate the mission by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.
"It's huge. This is the launch of, I feel like, the decade — and I actually went to space a few years ago," said astronaut Sian Proctor, who piloted the groundbreaking all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission in September 2021.
Proctor labeled herself "a moon celebration baby" who was born 8½ months after Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. She said she feels emotions that her father's generation felt — he worked at NASA tracking stations during the Apollo era.
"And I can only imagine the excitement they all felt back then. And now, we have this whole new generation that gets to be inspired by Artemis and everything that we're doing," she said.
Proctor chatted with FLORIDA TODAY roughly three hours before liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site, where hundreds of reporters, photographers and social media influencers congregated to cover NASA's landmark launch.
Artemis II key step toward future U.S. lunar base
Nearby, thousands of spectators converged on downtown Titusville — where some U.S. 1 private parking lots charged $40 per vehicle. By 5 p.m. Wednesday, some Brevard County highways were clogged up with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
In post-liftoff tweets, Brevard County Emergency Management officials described gridlock gripping central and north Brevard: "It's Carmageddon." State Road 406 and U.S. 1 in Titusville became "a frenzy of pedestrians and vehicles," and westbound Beachline Expressway traffic near Port Canaveral ground to a standstill.
NASA officials view Artemis II as a key stepping stone in a phased plan to build a permanent moon base. Next year, Artemis III is scheduled to test commercial lunar landers built by Blue Origin and/or SpaceX in Earth's orbit. Artemis IV — the first Artemis crewed moon landing — is slated for early 2028.
“I’m really confident this is just the beginning. Because we’re going to be landing on the moon, in my opinion, in two years," U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indian Harbour Beach said during a Wednesday prelaunch interview at the KSC Press Site.
"And making sure that we have that opportunity to extract the energy from the moon. And of course, the water that will eventually propel us, potentially, off to Mars,” said Haridopolos, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
Haridopolos said he thinks we will see a launch from the moon to Mars in our lifetime — "and it’ll be a lot easier when you don’t have to break out of Earth’s atmosphere."
NASA studying temporary communications loss
During a post-launch news conference at KSC, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said an issue led to a temporary partial loss of communications about 51 minutes into Orion's flight.
"There were no issues with the vehicle itself. Comms with the crew have been restored. We're actively working the issue, and we'll keep you informed," he told reporters.
Isaacman said the Artemis II crew was safe, secure and in great spirits.
"We know the challenges ahead. We have a lot of checkouts to get through before (translunar injection). And when and if all goes well — everything is 'go' — Artemis II will be moon-bound," Isaacman said.
He said NASA is committed to keeping the public as informed as possible on this historic mission, and "we will hold our celebration until this crew is under parachutes and splashes down off the west coast of the United States."
Artemis II ends wait for 'my moon moment'
NASA's Artemis II mission marks the first crewed return trip to the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. That's when astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent 75 hours on the surface in the moon's Taurus-Littrow Valley.
"I'm 57 years old. I've waited (nearly) 54 years for what I will call 'my moon moment,' " said Rich Cooper, Space Foundation vice president of strategic communications, chatting Wednesday morning at the press site.
"Just around 75% of the planet was not alive the last time we were on the moon. So I'm in the 25% category. But I was a little kid," Cooper said.
Looking toward pad 39B, Cooper said "I see and I feel hope" about what people can do when they work together. The Space Foundation estimates the global space economy is a $613 billion market that should top $1 trillion by 2032.
"We may only see the four crew members. There are thousands — thousands — of people who each brought a piece of this vehicle together. And when you can bring people together to do something like that, how can you not feel hope?" Cooper asked.
"Imagine what else we can do."
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Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at[email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1