The Artemis I mission blasted off at 1:47 a.m. ET. on Monday, marking the first time the United States has explored the moon in 50 years since the last Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Orion is designed to carry humans, but its passengers for this test mission are of the inanimate variety, including three mannequins collecting vital data to help future live crews. The Artemis program, with three launches, aims to return astronauts to the moon and establish a permanent base there in preparation for manned missions to Mars and more distant deep space exploration.
Moreover, if the launch is successful, NASA is expected to launch a manned space mission to orbit the moon with Artemis 2 as early as 2024, followed by Artemis 3 to the moon.
From CNN:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/16/world/artemis-1-launch-nasa-scn/index.html
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