The great mission has begun with the launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s most powerful rocket Artemis ever built on a journey to the Moon 50 years after the Apollo mission (“NASA successfully launches mega rocket, without astronauts, to the Moon,” Nov.16, Gulf Today website).

According to the report, the 32-storey tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the storeyed Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 01:47 am (0647 GMT). “We are going,” tweeted the space agency. Fixed to its top was the uncrewed Orion spaceship that will later separate and complete an orbit-and-a-half of Earth’s nearest neighbour, in a test run for later flights that should see the first woman and first person of colour touch down on lunar soil by the mid-2020s.

The world should be ready for new revelations from the Moon as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that “we’re going back to the Moon” for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.

Mumtaz Mehta — By email