Kochi: The US’ Artemis II space mission carrying four astronauts including a woman blasted off from Florida on flight around the moon.
The launch becomes historic as it is the first time humans are traveling beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.
The mission is a major step in NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon.
The 32-storey rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are on a nearly 10-day journey.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are on a nearly 10-day journey.
Glover is the first non white, Koch is the first woman, and Hansen is the first non-U.S. citizen to travel beyond low Earth orbit and to the Moon’s vicinity. Artemis II is a flight to explore subsequent Artemis missions.
They are planned to return humans to the lunar surface in 2028 for the first time since the Apollo program.
Apollo 8 of 1968 was the first crewed flight around the Moon during the Apollo program.
It was Apollo 13 which successfully landed on Moon and returned to Earth.
Artemis II on historic journey
