"A new chapter in international human lunar exploration," ESA says about Artemis launch

“Artemis I begins a new chapter in international human lunar exploration,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said after NASA successfully launched the uncrewed rocket carrying the Orian spacecraft at the European Service Module to the moon on Tuesday. This is the first time NASA used a European component to power an American spacecraft, ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said. “As the Americans would say: Aint that something.”

The ESA contributed the European Service Module (ESM) to the Artemis project. The ESM will provide oxygen, heat, water, power, and propulsion to future lunar explorers. NASA and the ESM are also using this flight to try out techniques to go to Mars, according to NOS.

The Artemis launched successfully from a specially built platform in Florida at 7:42 a.m. Dutch time. A special platform had to be built for the launch because the Artemis is as big as the Dom tower in Utrecht. The launch was postponed twice before, once because of technical problems and then because Hurricane Ian interfered.

If all goes according to plan, the Artemis will return to earth around December 11. Each Artemis flight costs about 4 billion dollars.