Thanks for joining us as we followed the historic launch of Nasa’s Artemis 1 rocket.
We will be closing down this liveblog but you can read all about the most powerful space rocket in history in our story below.
Former Space Shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach, cut the tie of Kennedy’s first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.
The tradition signifies the first time in a console position after a successful launch, Nasa said.
Continuing with the tradition of the tie-cutting, former Space Shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach, cuts the tie of Kennedy's first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.
— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) November 16, 2022
The tradition signifies the first time in a console position after a successful launch. pic.twitter.com/3nrLWRU4Lr
Launch in photos
Here are a few more snaps of the launch as the Artemis begins its 25-day mission.
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Two hurricanes, two months and a number of technical fixes since previous launch attempts were thwarted, Nasa’s Artemis 1, the most powerful space rocket in history, is finally on course for the moon after lifting off from Florida early on Wednesday.
Read our full report below:
Nasa Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson has made this statement shortly after the rocket launch:
On behalf of all the men and women across our great nation who have worked to bring this hardware together to make this day possible, and for the Artemis generation, this is for you.”
This powerful snap shows the Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket lift off from launch pad 39B at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Artemis 1 in Earth’s orbit
The Artemis 1 is now in Earth’s orbit.
The SLS rocket has reached main engine cutoff (MECO) in the mission timeline. The RS-25 engines have powered off and the core stage has separated.
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At just over 7 minutes into flight, the Artemis 1 is travelling at more than 12,000 miles per hour.
For the first time, the Nasa SLS rocket and Nasa Orion are flying together.
Artemis I begins a new chapter in human lunar exploration.
We are now four minutes into the flight.
The Artemis 1 is travelling at more than 5,000 miles an hour.
All engines are at maximum thrust.
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Artemis 1 makes successful launch
The Artemis 1 is now in the air after a delayed liftoff travelling at more than 2,000 miles an hour.
The solid rockets boosters have now separated.
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We are T-5 minutes until launch.
Liftoff is now scheduled for 1.47am ET.
"And #Artemis Generation, this is for you." Artemis I has a GO for launch to the Moon. T-0 time for liftoff is now set for 1:47am ET (0647 UTC). pic.twitter.com/MBV8tv6VHN
— NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2022
Late-countdown technical glitches solved
Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday filled the main fuel tanks of Nasa’s next-generation moon rocket for its debut launch, a flight to kick off the US space agency’s Artemis program 50 years after the last Apollo lunar mission.
Late in the countdown Tuesday night, a hydrogen fuel line leak was detected, leading Nasa managers to send a “red team” of technicians out to the launch pad to tighten a loose valve connection. The leak was fixed, Nasa said.
Around the same time, crews overseeing the launch complex scrambled to replace an internet connection that malfunctioned, knocking a crucial radar system offline.
The 'red crew' team has successfully remedied the leak, and it has not recurred. Bad ethernet switch is being replaced now.
— NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) November 16, 2022
On Tuesday afternoon, launch teams began the lengthy and delicate process of loading the rocket’s core-stage fuel tanks with hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cooled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant.
About five hours before liftoff, those tanks were filled, achieving a “major milestone” in launch preparations, a Nasa spokesperson said. Crews continued to top off the tanks periodically to replenish small amounts of propellant as the liquid gases gradually boiled off as vapour.
Nasa kicks off new moon program
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Nasa’s Artemis rocket launch to the moon.
I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next couple of hours.
The Artemis 1, the most powerful rocket ship in history, will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1.04am EST (6.04am GMT) on Wednesday.
The launch is part of Nasa’s new moon program with a test flight of a brand-new rocket and capsule.
The test flight aims to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after Nasa’s famed Apollo moonshots.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
If you have just joined us, here’s what we know so far:
The Orion capsule is set for a 25-day, 1.3m-mile journey to the moon and back.
There will be no humans onboard. The “crew” for Artemis 1 includes sensor-rigged mannequins called Helga, Zohar and Moonikin Campos, who will gauge radiation levels, and a soft toy Snoopy and Shaun the Sheep as gravity detectors.
A series of delays through the summer and early fall held the launch date back after attempts in August and September were scrapped when engineers discovered an engine cooling problem, then were unable to fix an unrelated fuel leak. Hopes of an early October launch were thwarted when the threat of Hurricane Ian forced the space agency to roll the giant $4.1bn Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to the safety of the hangar.
Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, explained the purpose of the Artemis program in an interview with Newsweek earlier this year: “We’re going back to the moon after 50 years, to stay, to learn, to work, to create, to develop new technologies and new systems and new spacecraft in order to go to Mars … This is a tremendous turn of history.”
The Artemis program comes with a $93bn price tag, including $4.1bn for each of the first launches. Analysts say this is unsustainable and note it is already billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.
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