NASA launches its Artemis 1 mission from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida

The US  space agency NASA launched its Artemis 1 mission on Wednesday from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. Artemis is the most powerful rocket ever designed by NASA. It will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Systems that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.

Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is carrying the Orion capsule on a demonstration for NASA’s lunar program. No astronauts are onboard the mission. Artemis 1 will not land on the moon but the spacecraft will orbit nearby before returning to Earth in 26 days.

Today’s launch followed two previous launch attempts in August and September that were aborted during the countdown because of technical glitches.