NASA’s Artemis 2 mission blasted off successfully, but the crew encountered an early systems glitch when a toilet controller and a water tank valve failed shortly after liftoff.
Mission leaders described the issue as not unexpected and said the team is only at the start of the flight, with crew members safe and in good spirits.
A separate, short-lived communications interruption occurred during a satellite handover, but ground teams resolved it quickly by resetting equipment.
The 322-foot rocket carrying four astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6:36 p.m.
local time.
After reaching orbit, the crew will circle Earth for roughly 25 hours before firing toward the Moon.
Flight tracking for the mission is being handled in part from the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall.
Five minutes into the ascent, commander Reid Wiseman reported a clear view of the Moon and confirmed the vehicle was on its planned trajectory.
The crew entered the cramped capsule hours before launch and will remain aboard for the roughly 10-day mission.
The cabin’s interior has been compared in size to a small camper van.
Ground teams had loaded more than 700,000 gallons (about 2.6 million litres) of fuel into the vehicle.
The launch followed a roughly two-month delay caused by hydrogen leaks and clogged helium lines.
Artemis 2 marks NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The agency hopes to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028, with other nations, including China, aiming for crewed landings in the early 2030s.
NASA emphasized that the mission remains on course despite the early hiccups, and engineers will continue monitoring systems as the spacecraft heads toward the Moon.
