NASA's historic Artemis I mission finally took flight in the morning of Wednesday after several months of delayed launches, showing off stunning photos of Earth from the spacecraft.

The historic event also kicked off the journey that seeks to send an uncrewed spacecraft on a trip around the moon. The mission will pave the way for the space agency to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in five decades.

Artemis I Launch

The Orion spacecraft's stunning first views of our planet as it made its way into the cosmos were shared more than nine hours after its initial launch. The spacecraft was at a distance of roughly 57,000 miles when the images were taken.

The mission is the first time since the final Apollo mission was conducted in 1972 that a spacecraft designed to carry humans took a picture of our planet. The Orion spacecraft sat on top of a rocket and is a gumdrop-shaped capsule that broke away from the main body after it reached space, as per CNN.

New views of planet Earth from @NASA_Orion as #Artemis I journeys to the Moon. Orion is 9.5 hours into a 25.5-day test flight. pic.twitter.com/CBaA4ZOK4X

— NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2022

 

The Orion spacecraft, nearly eight hours into its journey, experienced its outbound trajectory correction burn. It marked a mission milestone that ensures the craft stays on the right path toward its destination. The burn sets it up for its lunar flyby and closest approach of the moon on Nov. 21 before it enters a distant retrograde around the lunar rock on Nov. 25.

The spacecraft is expected to come within about 60 miles of the moon's surface during the close flyby mission next week. The Orion spacecraft is equipped with 16 cameras, both inside and outside, that are capable of documenting its trip around the moon from various perspectives.

According to Space, previous attempts to launch the Artemis I mission were mired with various setbacks. An intermittent leak was detected in the liquid hydrogen replenishment valve on the mission's mobile launch tower. The space agency deployed a specialized "Red Crew" to the tower in an attempt to tighten packing nuts that would stop the leak, which took more than an hour.

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Artemis 1 Launch's Previous Struggles

After that issue, a separate problem with an ethernet switch at a radar site on the U.S. Space Force Eastern Range delayed the launch yet again, bringing more uncertainty. The issue prompted a "no-go" on the range until a replacement was found and installed. The problem was fixed while the launch countdown was at the planned T-10 minutes hold.

The successful launch is the third attempt to put the Artemis I into space, with the first being on Aug. 29 which was scrubbed due to a glitch in the cooling process in one of the four main engines of the rocket. The second attempt, which was conducted on Sept. 3, experienced a hydrogen leak during the rocket's fueling process.

NASA's Associate Administrator for Science, Thomas Zurbuchen, said that the mission was not only about flags and footprints. He noted it was more about building a sustainable presence on the moon and setting in place the foundations for a future moonbase and potential missions to Mars, BBC reported.

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