'We're going for all of us' Mission has a message for the world

It gave the appearance of a true all-American moment: a Nasa moon rocket blasting into a clear Florida sky on the US space agency’s first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century, with a prominent stars and stripes flapping in the breeze alongside an oversized countdown clock.

- Richard Luscombe

The four astronauts, however, embarked on their 10-day odyssey with a unifying message for humankind. “We really are going for all, by all, and we want to take the whole world along with us,’ declared Reid Wiseman, the commander of Artemis II, in a final media briefing before Wednesday’s liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.

It was a message reinforced by Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, at a post-launch press conference: “We're going to get back in the business of launching rockets on a regular cadence, and we're going to bring the world along with us.”

An event nearly 54 years in the making - since the December 1972 Apollo 17 mission when humans last set foot on the moon - was almost obliged to recognise how much the world has changed. It did not disappoint.

A flawless, fiery liftoff, after a surprisingly trouble-free countdown given the technical problems that forced Nasa to abandon launch attempts in February and March, entertained up to half a million people packed on the beaches, causeways and open spaces of Florida’s space coast. These astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, will not land on the moon during their lunar flyby, as 12 of their Apollo-era forerunners did between 1969 and 1972. But they are making history in a more modern way.

The Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, is the first non-American to journey to the moon; Victor Glover, the first person of colour; Christina Koch, the first woman.