 It took a bit more waiting but SLS has finally launched into space and the Artemis programme is now in full swing. But what's next for the mission? Let's find out. This is your Artemis 1 launch edition of Tomorrow Space News. The countdown to the launch was the smoothest we've seen so far through the multiple launch attempts of the big orange rockets. That doesn't mean we didn't see any hiccups, however. At 230 Universal, NASA announced that they had stopped flowing liquid hydrogen into the core stage due to a quote, intermittent leak on the replenish valve. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave the go ahead about 30 minutes later to send out the Red Crew, a specialised group of individuals to the launch pad to tighten bolts on that leaky valve on the mobile launcher. Whilst SLS was nearly full of fuel, I might add. After about an hour of work, the Red Crew left 39B, allowing the liquid hydrogen replenish to be restarted. But not all the wrinkles were ironed out just yet as a bad Ethernet switch needed to be replaced and re-verified by the range. With plenty of time left in the window, the range managed to replace the bad Ethernet switch and verify the flight termination system would still work if it was needed. Launch control polled go for launch and the planned T-minus 10 minute hold ended resuming the countdown to launch. We've been waiting so, so long for this moment, but finally, SLS has lifted off the pad and a riot is heading to the moon. 4 stage engines start, 3, 2, 1, boosters ignition and liftoff of Artemis 1. We rise together, back to the moon and beyond. On the 16th of November 2022, at 0647 and 44 seconds UTC, the two solid rocket boosters ignited and SLS lifted off launch complex 39B, beginning the three and a half week Artemis 1 mission. Firstly though, the roar of the five segment shuttle-derived solid rocket boosters had to eventually come to an end and they were jettisoned at 2 minutes and 12 seconds into the flight. Following the SRBs were the service module panels which protected ESA's automated transfer vehicle derived European service module until 2 plus 3 minutes and 13 seconds. Three kilometers and six seconds later, the inert launch abort tower was jettisoned unveiling the Orion capsule to the outside world and also giving the passengers aboard a good view out of the window. And finally, after a few more minutes of thrashing from the four RS-25 engines, the core stage experienced main engine cutoff at 8 minutes and 16 seconds before separating from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, also known as the second stage. The ICPS burnt for approximately 10 more minutes before holding off for 12 whilst Orion deployed its solar arrays allowing it to generate electricity for the first time. Once the solar panels were extended successfully, the ICPS burnt again for a short 22 second blip to raise the perigee of its orbit. The longest burn of the mission was yet to come however, as at T plus 1 hour 38 minutes and 3 seconds, the ICPS lit up for the final time for a whopping 17 minutes and 59 seconds starting the trans-lunar injection burn. Once completed, Orion separated and S&S had completed its job for Artemis-1. There are still some CubeSats to be deployed though which had hitched a ride alongside Orion, the first of which is called Biosentinel, a satellite designed to measure the impact of deep space on living organisms. Biosentinel doesn't have any animals trapped inside, don't worry, instead it will be inspecting yeast measuring the differences caused by deep space radiation, something that could be a big problem for long-term space travel by humans. The outcome of this experiment will allow NASA and whoever else gets their hands on the data to make better decisions about what interventions need to be created in order to keep a long duration deep space crew healthy. Near Earth Asteroid Scout, abbreviated to NIA Scout, is a CubeSat with a built-in solar sail for propulsion. It is going to perform reconnaissance of an asteroid with a diameter smaller than 100 meters, collecting data on its characteristics, rotational properties, and regolith properties. The data collected by NIA Scout will give NASA better data on asteroids, giving them a better understanding of them which will be valuable when humans first visit asteroids. And the last CubeSat is called Lunar Flashlight, which is also equipped with a solar sail. It will be orbiting the moon, scouting for ice deposits and good landing locations for resource extraction. The solar sail also serves a double purpose on a lunar flashlight, with it serving as propulsion and a big mirror, as it will reflect light into permanently shadowed lunar craters at the poles and then measure the light coming back through a spectrometer. That data will allow NASA to map out the concentration of surface ice, which, paired with data from other missions, will provide insight on where future missions should visit. These CubeSats doing additional science are really exciting, but the main mission is Artemis I, so we'll get back to that. A few days from now, assuming you're watching when this episode is released, Orion will arrive at the moon about 100km above the lunar surface. It will utilise the gravitational pull of the moon, which will swing it into a deep retrograde orbit, which in Lehmann's terms basically means it'll be going into a very high 70,000km backwards orbit around the moon. Once Orion has reached this deep retrograde orbit, it'll stay there for six days, performing tasks for mission control, allowing the controllers to evaluate the vehicle's performance and to collect data. When Orion is ready to return home, it'll perform one more close flyby of the moon at an altitude less than 100km. Before hitting the Earth's atmosphere, Orion will ditch the European service module, leaving just the capsule to return to Earth at a speed of 11km per second. This will mean that the temperatures on the outside of the vehicle will reach 2760°C, much higher than the temperatures reached by vehicles returning from low Earth orbits such as SpaceX's Dragon. After getting a good grilling, Orion will go through its parachute deployment sequence before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Baja California. That's still a few weeks away though, so I'll update you on that closer to the time. I need to give you a reason to come back to Hopefully you've learned a thing or two about the incredible launch we've just witnessed, which was the loudest and most amazing way we could have entered the Artemis era. The maiden flight of the space launch system is the beginning of humanity's return to the moon, and I can't wait. It's actually happened, and it is unbelievable. As always, a big thank you to all the citizens of tomorrow who have helped to support the show financially. In this special episode, I'm also going to give a big thank you to our previous supporters of the show as well, as tomorrow has existed in some form since the retirement of the space shuttle back in 2011, and without your support through to 2010s, I wouldn't be here right now, just after the launch of the space launch system. If you want to support our work documenting the future of humanity, consider becoming a member at join.tmro.tv or the join button below. I still can't believe it's actually happened, but it has. The Artemis era has arrived, and the next boots on the lunar surface have just gotten a lot closer. Thanks for watching, and goodbye.