Nasa's Artemis rocketship on course for moon after epic launch

Cape Canaveral: Nasa’s huge next-generation rocketship was on course on Wednesday for a crewless voyage around the moon and back hours after blasting off from Florida on its debut flight, half a century after the final lunar mission of the Apollo era.

The much-delayed launch kicked off Apollo’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.

The 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center at 1.47am EST (0647 GMT), piercing the blackness over Cape Canaveral with a reddish-orange tail of fire.