Artemis I mission takes flight

NASA has finally launched its uncrewed Artemis I mission on a historic journey to the moon.

The spacecraft took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11 pm local time. It’s flying without astronauts for a test mission headed for deep space, kicking off a 25-and-a-half-day journey around the moon.

The rocket is now officially the most powerful to ever reach earth’s orbit. It comes after two scrubbed launch attempts in August.

The mission marks the inaugural launch of the space agency’s Artemis program in its plan to eventually return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the mid-20th century.