Nasa astronauts reach safe orbit in historic moon mission

[AUSTIN] Nasa's crew of astronauts launched to space and reached a stable orbit, kicking off a landmark journey that will take them closer to the lunar surface than anyone has been in more than 50 years. The initial phase of the 10-day mission to lap the moon, a multibillion-dollar feat about a decade in the making, clears a major hurdle for Nasa and its legacy aerospace contractors as the agency works to establish a base on the lunar surface and ultimately venture to Mars. The crew's Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule, stacked on the shoulders of Boeing's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, thundered off the launchpad at 6.35 pm local time at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket system, taller than the Statue of Liberty, reached speeds of around 17,500 miles per hour as it hurtled to space. It blazed a trail of fire and smoke as it climbed and eventually shed its spent side boosters, which provided extra thrust. Inside the capsule, the astronauts could be seen pressed into their seats in bright orange space suits. About eight minutes into the flight, SLS' main engines shut down as expected and the capsule reached space. "We have a beautiful moonrise. We're headed right at it," Nasa astronaut and mission commander Reid Wiseman said during the live broadcast. About an hour later, the Orion capsule's main engine ignited, putting the spacecraft and the crew into a stable orbit around Earth. The crew are set to travel farther in space than anyone in history. The Artemis voyages will attempt to repeat and then leapfrog feats achieved during the historic Apollo programme that landed Neil Armstrong and 11 other men on the lunar surface in the 1960s and 1970s. Watch parties occurred across the country, including in major space hubs like Seattle, Houston and Huntsville, Alabama, where the core stage of the SLS is produced. Hundreds of thousands of viewers tuned into live feeds of the mission. With Artemis - named after the twin goddess of Apollo - Nasa aims to stay on the moon long-term. US President Donald Trump's Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman has laid out a decade-long US$30 billion plan to set up a base on the moon where astronauts can live and work. Isaacman has also sped through a significant makeover of the overall mission, including adding a test mission in 2027 that will send a crew to dock with one of the lunar landers being built by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. "It is far less stressful to be strapped into the rocket than to be responsible for it here on Earth," Isaacman, who has flown to orbit twice on SpaceX missions, said during a post-launch news conference. The crew will spend roughly four days travelling to the lunar vicinity, where they will swing behind the moon's far side - a vantage that is never seen from Earth. They are slated to perform a flyby of the lunar surface on Apr 6. If the mission unfolds as planned, their trajectory will take them within roughly 4,112 miles (6,618 kilometers) of the moon during their closest approach, with the orb appearing about the size of a basketball in an outstretched hand in the capsule window. Wiseman, a 27 year navy veteran and former head of the agency's astronaut office, is joined by Nasa astronauts Victor Glover, the mission's pilot, and Christina Koch, a mission specialist who conducted the first all-female spacewalk. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, another crew member, will be flying to space for the first time on this trip. Roughly three and a half hours after launch, the Orion capsule separated from the upper portion of the SLS rocket. At that point, Glover took manual control of the Orion capsule, turned it around and steered the vehicle up close to the SLS piece. As Glover maneuvered, he noted differences from operating the actual Orion spacecraft in orbit than the simulators with which the astronauts trained. The demonstration was meant to test the maneuverability of Orion and practice procedures that might be used to dock with future lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. The maneuvers lasted for roughly an hour. Once the demo was over, the Orion capsule distanced itself from the SLS piece and carried on with its orbit around Earth. On the second day of the flight, the Orion spacecraft will ignite its main engine, sending the crew en route to the moon. The US is racing to get back to the moon before China sends its own astronauts there for the first time, a goal Beijing has set for before the end of the decade. A number of US China hawks, including US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have cast Artemis as a race for a strategic foothold in space, sometimes referred to as the "ultimate high ground" for war. China has yet to send people to the lunar surface but has notched several achievements, including the only landings on the moon's far side. The nation is also leading a project to build an international research station near the lunar south pole. The Artemis II mission is notable for its numerous "firsts". Koch will be the first woman to fly near the moon, while Glover will be the first Black astronaut to do the same. Hansen will also become the first Canadian to fly to the moon. The mission marks just the second flight of the SLS rocket, which has fallen many years behind schedule. The rocket and Orion have suffered various schedule delays and cost overruns, which have pushed back the entire Artemis program. US Senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona, embraced Isaacman's new plans to build a moon base, but he also shared a dose of skepticism about Nasa's ability to land on the lunar surface in 2028. "It's going to be tough," Kelly told reporters before crew members boarded the capsule. "I don't think it's out of the question." After the Nasa crew fly by the moon, gravity will pull them back to Earth. On the tenth day of the mission, their capsule will re-enter the planet's atmosphere and they will descend under parachutes and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. A recovery ship and a team of divers with Nasa and the US Navy will meet up with the capsule to pull the crew out of the water. BLOOMBERG