NASA¡¯s crew of astronauts launched to space and reached a stable orbit, kicking off a landmark journey that will take them closer to the lunar surface than anyone has been in more than 50 years.
The initial phase of the 10-day mission to lap the moon, a multibillion-dollar feat about a decade in the making, clears a major hurdle for NASA and its legacy aerospace contractors as the agency works to establish a base on the lunar surface and ultimately venture to Mars.
The crew¡¯s Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule, stacked on the shoulders of Boeing¡¯s Space Launch System rocket, thundered off the launchpad at 6:35 p.m. local time at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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