NASA's Artemis I mission launches on historic return to Moon
Predawn sky lit up Wednesday morning over Florida's Space Coast
NASA's new 322-foot-tall Moon rocket rolls off its launch pad with some mannequins.
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The white, bell-shaped capsule, called Orion, has now begun a 25-day test flight that will take it around the Moon and back
The journey of nearly 1.2 million miles will bring NASA one step closer to achieving its goal of returning humans to the lunar surface.
The Orion capsule will orbit within about 80 miles of the Moon's surface, and its maximum distance from Earth will be 268,553 miles.
Surpassed a record set by NASA's Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
If all goes well, the capsule will return to Earth faster and hotter than any human-rated spacecraft.
It will make landfall in the Pacific Ocean on December 11 off the coast of San Diego, California.
And in a few years, this huge rocket and capsule could be flying with people.
His office projected that, through the fiscal year 2025, NASA would spend $93 billion on the Artemis effort