NASA’s Artemis 1 mission launches successfully, lifts off to the moon

• NASA launched the Artemis I mission on Wednesday from Florida, with the agency’s most powerful rocket ever kicking off a nearly month-long journey with a ground-shaking liftoff.
• The spacecraft has lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B towards the moon at 01:47 local time (06:47 GMT).
• Earlier, the launch came across new obstacle because of a faulty ethernet switch in the radar sites. NASA informed, "The Eastern Range and launch teams have since resolved an issue that caused a loss of signal from a radar site and are currently conducting required tests to ensure communication and tracking of the rocket and spacecraft."
• Wednesday's flight followed two previous launch attempts in August and September that were aborted during the countdown because of technical glitches. Last week, NASA left SLS and Orion out on the launchpad to weather the winds of Hurricane Nicole.
• Boeing (BA), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings (AJRD) worked together to build parts of the SLS rocket. Lockheed Martin (LMT) oversaw the development of Orion.
• The European Space Agency, Jacobs Engineering Group (J) and the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing, also participated in building the spacecraft.