Its been a long road to get here, with two false starts at the testing phase, but hopefully, in the next few hours, the rocket will be bound for the Moon. Watch this space!
UPDATE
Artemis 2 lifted off successfully in the late evening, UK time and is now orbiting the Earth, performing final preparations for a trans-lunar injection.
The lift off was an exhilarating sight, even though commercial flights are taking off to low orbit on a regular basis and the crew transfers for the ISS have become almost pedestrian by comparison, the import of a manned mission to the moon certainly coloured the event. Even though it is not a true 'moon shot' with no actual landing taking place, watching a manned mission head for the bright full moon hanging overhead was a very moving and exciting sight. For a few seconds as the countdown ticked away, I was transported back to 1969 and was watching Apollo 11 make history. The major difference in the presentation this time, was the quality of the imagery broadcast - even though some of the live cabin feeds were still subject to glitching and breakup - the actual footage of the separation of the core stage and the main capsule was amazingly clear.
I look forward to being able to watch the progress over the next 10 days - not on a blurry monochrome screen, but both on my phone and on a high definition colour feed. I feel privileged to be able to witness two moonshots in one lifetime and hope I get to see another moon landing and to watch man reach Mars sometime in the near future!
