Blastoff! NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket launches on historic first mission

Foreign core stage rs25 engines testing the ability to direct the

rocket

into space. They will operate at 109 performance each rs-25 releasing 500 million pounds of thrust the four, two million pounds in total with the propellants 8.8 million pounds of thrust, yes. let's go to the upper stage to internal power now the upper stage has gone to internal power, so the power is removed from the upper stage of the

rocket

, the icps and switched to battery power. Milestone itself approaches the center stage at T minus one minute. and 30 seconds GLS goes from the central stage to the internal supply.

The Rockets core stage that houses the three flight computers is now battery powered, so there is no more standby time available because there is no more headroom in the battery, so if we keep standby, it would have to recycle again. new to T minus 10 minutes and recharge those batteries the count continues a note now shortly after liftoff one minute shortly after liftoff Mission Control Houston will take control of the rocket and my colleague Leah Cheshire will take over the commentary T-minus 50 seconds and counting reaching T's minus 33 seconds the GLS will hand over control to the ALS this is the autonomous launch sequencer on board the rocket will take command and control of the rocket but the ALS will verify and ensure that there are no holds coming from the ground to T- less and we go by ALS, the space launch system is now counting down to the liftoff of Orion on its maiden voyage to the Moon.

The launch team can no longer recycle the counting pressure ER, the water that now flows under the ml. and here we go, the hydrogen burn igniters started seven six five four-stage engines start three two one outrage booster and lift off from Artemis one we rise together back to the

moon

and beyond five engines in the core stage and two thrusters of solid rockets now propelling the vehicle at 128 miles per hour good good role control by Mission Control Houston teams all good decisions so far now 30 seconds into the fight Harvest one

first

Milestone will be fourth Los Vehicles pass through Max Q in about one minute and nine seconds after launch, this is the longest period of atmospheric force on the market SLS now traveling at 607 miles per hour you're looking at 8.8 million pounds of silent maximum thrust here in the stages of throttle loop presentation control now one minute 21 seconds into flight traveling at 1,420 miles per hour, all four core stage engines return to full thrust, next major milestone will be solid rocket boosters shearing and falling apart in about 2 minutes and 11 seconds of flight, so in 30 seconds it will be quiet again here at Mission Control.

Houston as teams continue to monitor the flight of Artemis won, we are now 16 miles from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center traveling at over 2,800 miles per hour awaiting the launch of the solid booster rockets and shortly after confirmation that solid rocket boosters have been separated. These 177-foot boosters now, the core stage, continue to power Orion's flight, all Force rs-25 engines firing and traveling at more than 3,400 miles per hour, 46 miles down, two minutes and 36 seconds into flight, Listening to roll calls here at Mission Control Houston, we still have four good engines in the core stage.

Next we will look for the service module fairing to separate it. These are three 15-by-15-foot fairing panels that provide structural support and protect the service module. They will separate it approximately 3 minutes and 11 seconds. in flight and very shortly thereafter will be followed by the separation of the launch abort system just over three minutes into the flight of Artemis 1 which is now traveling at over four thousand sixty miles per hour 83 miles down, we have just received confirmation of that the service module fairing has separated and that the launch abort system pyrotechnics have gone off, separating those from Orion as well for future crew members.

We just heard the call to press three engines, which means that if SLS were to lose an engine at this point in the

mission

, we could still achieve a nominal

mission

. We have a long main engine shutdown time, however, we still have four good engines, all at maximum thrust right now, powering Artemis'

first

flight at 5,200 miles per hour, 148 miles of descending range, we're four minutes and 16 seconds of the flight of Artemis 1. . so far we've had a clean ascent, we saw those solid rocket boosters jettison about two minutes and 11 seconds after liftoff, shortly after we separated the fairing from the main panels of the service module, as well as the launch abort system, the launch abort system was inert for this. flight, except to perform this separation, those four core stage engines will continue to fire and power Artemis flight.

One now travels at more than 6,800 miles per hour. The 229 mile lower range booster flight controller reports that the engines look good. The cut-off time of our core stage main engine. it's about eight minutes and three seconds now we're at 5 minutes and 11 seconds into the flight 77,656 miles per hour again four good core stage engines those four rs-25 engines the last time those core stage engines flew they were taking space shuttles to orbiting now with enhanced capabilities are launching the future of human spaceflight five minutes and 42 seconds into the mission we are now traveling at 8,800 miles per hour 345 miles down from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center we are once again anticipating The main core stage engine shut down at approximately eight minutes and three seconds and approximately 10 seconds later we will see the separation of the core stage, at which time Orion and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage will fly free now traveling at more than 10 000 miles per hour at 6 minutes and 15 seconds.

Artemis flight 1,427 miles down quietly here in the loops at Mission Control Houston teams continue to monitor this first flight for about a minute and a half until the core stage main engine times out, our four stage engines central continue firing maximum thrust. We are seven minutes from launch today and now traveling at over 12,800 miles per hour 563 miles down again still quiet here at Mission Control Houston as we prepare for main engine shutdown the four rs-25 engines are beginning to reduce throttle 30 seconds now to core Core stage main engine shut down, all four engines continue to accelerate down now seven minutes and 45 seconds into flight traveling at over 16,000 miles per hour.

We continue to hear good calls here at Mission Control Houston, we are waiting for the core stage main engine cut-off and We have confirmation, of course, of the Orion main engine stage cut-off and it is now in Earth orbit, the official Flight dynamics reports that we have a nominal main engine shutdown and just heard the call for core stage separation, which means Orion and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage are now flying. Freed from the core stage of the space launch system, the next milestone will be the deployment of solar panels approximately 18 minutes after liftoff.