One small step for Artemis, one giant leap for future Moonkind

At 1:48am ET this morning, NASA successfully launched the first mission of its Artemis program, an initiative that eventually plans to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in 50 years. It's also the first test of the world's most powerful rocket, which NASA has been developing since 2011.

🚀🌕 The mission, should you choose to accept it… Artemis I’s initial aim was to launch said rocket, carrying the solar-powered spacecraft Orion, into orbit.

The two will then separate, with Orion – the craft most likely to carry live astronauts on future missions – planning to orbit around the Moon to test its systems before being remotely guided back to Earth. 

• The roughly 42-day Artemis I mission will travel ~1.3 million-miles round-trip. And if successful, it'd set the stage for a surface landing as early as 2025. Astronauts haven't set foot on the Moon since 1972.

✋ Yes, but: Though Artemis I has been launched, it's not out of the woods yet. Experts say a failed mission would imperil the entire program “because a failing, over-budget program is far harder to garner political support for,” per Axios. Artemis I's launch was initially scheduled for August, but was delayed three times due to technical issues and weather.

👩‍🚀 The big picture: At some point, things will need to get more efficient for the ten-step Artemis program – or else. The cost to launch the first mission was an estimated $4.1 billion, a figure Paul Martin, NASA’s inspector general, said “strikes us as unsustainable.”

+Bonus: Watch a livestream of this morning’s launch here.