NASA launches Artemis I - Deep Space Exploration Systems

After repeated fuel leaks, two hurricanes and a pair of launch delays, engineers refueled NASA's $4.1 billion Space Launch System rocket for a third launch. 

The Artemis 1 launch kicked off a long-awaited maiden flight to send an uncrewed Orion capsule to circle the moon. 

Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.

During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. 

It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a four to six-week mission.