The sound of the successful launch of the Artemis II.

 

At 5:35pm this evening, NASA’s?Artemis II rocket, with the Orion?spacecraft atop carrying NASA Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex to begin its journey to deep space. The 10-day mission around the Moon is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It will help test the systems and hardware needed to continue sending astronauts on missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to continue building toward the first crewed missions to Mars.

 

At 5:43pm, main engine cutoff of the SLS core stage was complete, and the core stage separated from the spacecraft. This marks the end of the first major propulsion phase of the mission and the transition to upper-stage operations.  Updates can be found here.

 

*Photo courtesy of NASA*