Artemis II with four crew aboard lifts off for Moon

NASA’s Artemis II rocket and Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts launched without a glitch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on time Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. EDT,  heading into a 10-day mission in a loop around the Moon.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen boarded the Orion capsule about two hours prior to liftoff and were strapped inside.

Moments before liftoff, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told the crew, “You take with you the hearts of the Artemis team… and the hopes and dreams of a new generation. Godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go.”   

The bold test flight promises to become historic as the first trip to the Moon in 54 years with the probability humans with fly farther from Earth than any humans have before.

Fierce has paid close attention the sensors being used throughout the Orion and SLS, with a story on radiation sensors to alert astronauts of harmful solar radiation and deep space cosmic rays.  

A Czech company actually made the radiation sensors that NASA incorporated into a system. 

At one point near launch, a battery failure on an instrument was determined to an inaccurate reading from a sensor, but NASA did not provide many details and the launch countdown continued as planned.

“Everything has gone really smoothly today, with the weather clearing up,” just minutes before the launch window opened at 6:24 p.m. EDT, a NASA Live commentor noted.

The rocket left the launch pad with 248,000 miles left to reach the Moon in about six days.