Nasa's next-generation Artemis rocket lifts off on test flight to moon

Liftoff came on the third attempt at launching the long-delayed, multibillion-dollar rocket, after 10 weeks beset by numerous technical mishaps, back-to-back hurricanes and two excursions trundling the spacecraft out of its hangar to the launch pad

The 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket surged off the launch pad from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral to send its Orion capsule on a three-week test journey around the moon and back without astronauts aboard. Picture: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Nasa's towering next-generation moon rocket blasted off from Florida early on Wednesday on its debut flight, a crewless voyage inaugurating the US space agency's Artemis exploration program 50 years after the final Apollo moon mission.

The 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket surged off the launch pad from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral to send its Orion capsule on a three-week test journey around the moon and back without astronauts aboard.