NASA’s Overshadowed Moon Launch
After a successful takeoff, a crewless capsule is on its way to the moon. Where’s the fanfare?
In the middle of the night, while many Americans were sleeping, NASA launched the country into the next era of space exploration.
A giant new rocket, the most powerful that the agency has ever built, soared into space just before 2 a.m. today, carrying a gumdrop-shaped capsule on a journey to the moon and back. It’s the first mission in the Artemis program, NASA’s ambitious effort to land American astronauts on the moon for the first time in 50 years.
No astronauts were inside the Orion capsule this morning. But the successful flight of, America’s 21st-century moon dreams are finally under way. (They might have been overshadowed by another overnight launch from Florida——but they’re happening.)
