<p>The much-delayed launch kicked off Apollo&rsquo;s successor programme, Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.</p>
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<p id="2">The 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from Nasa&rsquo;s Kennedy Space Center at 1.47am EST (0647 GMT), piercing the blackness over Cape Canaveral with a reddish-orange tail of fire.</p>
<p id="3">About 90 minutes after launch, the rocket&rsquo;s upper stage successfully thrust the Orion capsule out of Earth orbit and on its trajectory to the moon, Nasa announced. Liftoff came on the third attempt at launching the multibillion-dollar rocket, after 10 weeks beset by technical mishaps, back-to-back hurricanes and two excursions trundling the spacecraft out of its hangar to the launch pad.</p>
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<p id="2">About four hours before Wednesday&rsquo;s blastoff, crews had to deal with a flurry of simultaneous issues, including a leaky fuel valve. Quick work on the launch pad by a team of technicians, who tightened down a loose connection well inside the &ldquo;blast zone&rdquo; demarcated around a nearly fully fuelled rocket, was credited with saving the launch. After decades with Nasa focused on low-earth orbit with space shuttles and the ISS, it also signals a major change in direction for the agency&rsquo;s post-Apollo human spaceflight programme.</p>
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<p id="2">Named for the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt &mdash; and Apollo&rsquo;s twin sister &mdash; Artemis aims to return astronauts to the moon&rsquo;s surface as early as 2025.</p>
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<p id="1">The Artemis I mission entails a 25-day Orion flight bringing the capsule to within 97km of the lunar surface before flying 64,400km beyond the moon and looping back to Earth. The capsule is expected to splash down at sea on December 11. The thunder of 8.8 million pounds of thrust produced at launch sent shock waves across the Kennedy complex. &ldquo;It was incredible to see. It was so bright, so loud, you could feel it,&rdquo; said astronaut Jessica Meir.&nbsp;</p>
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Nasa's Artemis rocketship on course for moon after epic launch

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