Artemis I is launching at 1:04 a.m. EST from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
NASA’s $4 billion monthlong mission has been delayed four times since Wednesday due to fuel leaks and two tropical storms, Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.
Artemis I is supposed to be “the first flight test of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket,” according to NASA’s website, and the unmanned rocket “will fly 40,000 miles beyond the Moon and back, demonstrating our capability to send humans to lunar orbit on the second flight test.”
The last visit to the moon by astronauts was in December 1972, with the closing of the Apollo mission. NASA plans to send astronauts around the moon in 2024 and have a crew land on the moon in 2025.
