NASA’s most powerful rocket ever has launched into space in the first step of a mission to return humans to the moon.
The next-generation, multibillion-dollar Space Launch System lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with the Orion spacecraft in tow.
It surged off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 1.47am local time (6.47am UK), around 40 minutes into a two-hour window after late repairs to a leak and faulty communications equipment.
The crewless voyage is the inaugural flight of NASA’s Artemis programme, which will eventually take a team of astronauts to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Wednesday morning’s launch for Artemis 1 came after several delays stretching back to the summer, but the stunning images from America’s east coast certainly made it worth the wait.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told her team: “We are all involved in something incredibly special: the first launch of Artemis. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars. What you have done today will inspire generations to come.”
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What will the launch achieve?
The mega rocket generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch, far greater than any used by NASA before, while its two boosters and four RS-25 engines also produced plenty of power.
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“You definitely knew there was some energy being expended over there,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who watched it unfold from the roof of the launch centre.
Once in orbit, the boosters were among portions of the rocket which detached and headed back to Earth, leaving Orion and the upper portion of the rocket in space.
Orion then deployed its four solar arrays, each of which can generate 11 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power two three-bedroom homes.
NASA’S STRONG CASE FOR SPLASHING THE CASH
The Artemis programme will saddle the American taxpayer with a bill of $93bn (£78bn) so there is an obvious question about the value for money, particularly in a cost of living crisis.
NASA makes a good case for the cash.
First off, there is the science. The moon is a time capsule, undisturbed by the geological processes that have shaped Earth. It holds clues not only to its own origin, but the history of the solar system.
Artemis will also allow explorers to test the kit they need to survive in another world. In their lunar base camp they need to grow their own food, find a source of water, use it to make oxygen and fuel – and then it’s on to Mars.
But there is the geopolitics too.
China has an ambition to put its own taikonauts on the surface and America wants to be there first, just as it did in the space race with the Soviet Union.
There is a more philosophical reason for going beyond the relative safety of Earth’s orbit.
Photos from the Apollo missions showed the Earth as a small blue marble against a vast black curtain of space. They gave us a sense of just how fragile our planet is and helped to give birth to the environmental movement.
Robotic space missions are cheaper and safer, but humans are still more capable.
And there is something to be said for exploring new frontiers through human eyes.
It all happened within the opening hour of what is a 26-day mission, where the rocket and Orion will head to the moon and beyond, before coming back home. Both are equipped with cameras to feed back data and images while they’re among the stars.
While in space it will deploy 10 miniaturised satellites, which will perform a variety of work, from studying how radiation affects yeast DNA to hunting for water ice on the moon.
Weather is also a big focus of the test mission, with galactic cosmic rays presenting the biggest risk to future crews.
Image: The Artemis moon rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pics: Reuters
‘A great legacy’
Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 will follow in the years ahead – the former, which is aiming for 2024, is a crewed mission that will take a path much like Artemis 1.
Artemis 3 will go further by landing its crew on the lunar surface. Earmarked for 2025, that launch will make history by putting a woman and person of colour on the moon for the first time.
NASA hopes to use the Artemis programme to build a base camp and conduct annual missions – and also use it as a test bed for even more ambitious missions, starting with getting a human to Mars.
Mr Nelson said Artemis was “part of a great legacy”.
“It didn’t end with Apollo 17,” he added.
“This time we’re going back, we’re going to learn, and then we’re going to Mars – with humans.”
Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “amazing” – and says he will visit Beijing in April.
The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies met in South Korea as they tried to defuse growing tensions – with both countries imposing aggressive tariffs on exports since the president’s second term began.
Aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump confirmed tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US will be reduced, which could prove much-needed relief to consumers.
It was also agreed that Beijing will work “hard” to stop fentanyl flowing into the US.
Semiconductor chips were another issue raised during their 100-minute meeting, but the president admitted certain issues weren’t discussed.
“On a scale of one to 10, the meeting with Xi was 12,” he told reporters en route back to the US.
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‘Their handshake was almost a bit awkward’
Xi a ‘tough negotiator’, says Trump
The talks conclude a whirlwind visit across Asia – with Mr Trump saying he was “too busy” to see Kim Jong Un.
However, the president said he would be willing to fly back to see the North Korean leader, with a view to discussing denuclearisation.
Mr Trump had predicted negotiations with his Chinese counterpart would last for three or four hours – but their meeting ended in less than two.
The pair shook hands before the summit, with the US president quipping: “He’s a tough negotiator – and that’s not good!”
It marks the first face-to-face meeting between both men since 2019 – back in Mr Trump’s first term.
Image: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Pic: AP
There were signs that Beijing had extended an olive branch to Washington ahead of the talks, with confirmation China will start buying US soybeans again.
American farmers have been feeling the pinch since China stopped making purchases earlier this year – not least because the country was their biggest overseas market.
Chinese stocks reached a 10-year high early on Thursday as investors digested their meeting, with the yuan rallying to a one-year high against the US dollar.
Analysis: A fascinating power play
Sky News Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith – who is in Busan where the talks took place – said it was fascinating to see the power play between both world leaders.
She said: “Trump moved quickly to dominate the space – leaning in, doing all the talking, even responding very briefly to a few thrown questions.
“That didn’t draw so much as an eyebrow raise from his counterpart, who was totally inscrutable. Xi does not like or respond well to unscripted moments, Trump lives for them.”
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Will Trump really run for a third term?
On Truth Social, Mr Trump had described the summit as a gathering of the “G2” – a nod to America and China’s status as the world’s two biggest economies.
While en route to see President Xi, he also revealed that the US “Department of War” has now been ordered to start testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 1992.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Al Fashir by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a two-day window after the paramilitary group captured the regional capital, analysts believe.
Sky News is not able to independently verify the claim by Yale Humanitarian Labs, as the city remains under a telecommunications blackout.
Stains and shapes resembling blood and corpses can be seen from space in satellite images analysed by the research lab.
Image: Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Image: Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale Humanitarian Labs, said: “In the past 48 hours since we’ve had [satellite] imagery over Al Fashir, we see a proliferation of objects that weren’t there before RSF took control of Al Fashir – they are approximately 1.3m to 2m long which is critical because in satellite imagery at very high resolution, that’s the average length of a human body lying vertical.”
Mini Minawi, the governor of North Darfur, said on X that 460 civilians have been killed in the last functioning hospital in the city.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also shared that the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside Al Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards”.
World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reports.
Satellite images support the claims of a massacre at Al Saudi Hospital, according to Mr Raymond, who said YHL’s report detailed “a large pile of them [objects believed to be bodies] against a wall at one building at Saudi hospital. And we believe that’s consistent with reports that patients and staff were executed en masse”.
In a video message released on Wednesday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “violations in Al Fashir” and claimed “an investigation committee should start to hold any soldier or officer accountable”.
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Army soldiers ‘fled key Sudan city’ before capture
Image: The Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al Fashir. Pic: Airbus DS /2025 via AP
The commander is known for committing atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s as a Janjaweed militia leader, and the RSF has been accused of carrying out genocide in Darfur 20 years on.
Sources have told Sky News the RSF is holding doctors, journalists and politicians captive, demanding ransoms from some families to release their loved ones.
One video shows a man from Al Fashir with an armed man kneeling on the ground, telling his family to pay 15,000. The currency was not made clear.
In some cases, ransoms have been paid, but then more messages come demanding that more money be transferred to secure release.
Muammer Ibrahim, a journalist based in the city, is currently being held by the RSF, who initially shared videos of him crouched on the ground, surrounded by fighters, announcing his hometown had been captured under duress.
He is being held incommunicado as his family scrambles to negotiate his release. Muammer courageously covered the siege of Al Fashir for months, enduring starvation and shelling.
The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director Sara Qudah said the abduction of Muammar Ibrahim “is a grave and alarming reminder that journalists in Al Fashir are being targeted simply for telling the truth”.