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The American space agency Nasa has launched its most powerful ever rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The 100m-tall Artemis vehicle climbed skyward in a stupendous mix of light and sound.

Its objective was to hurl an astronaut capsule in the direction of the Moon.

This spacecraft, known as Orion, is uncrewed for this particular flight, but if everything works as it should, people will climb aboard for future missions that go to the lunar surface. Next month, it will be 50 years since humans last went there.

Wednesday's flight followed two previous launch attempts in August and September that were aborted during the countdown because of technical woes.

But such issues were overcome on this occasion, and the Space Launch System, as the rocket is often called, was given the "go" to begin its ascent from the Kennedy Space Center at 01:47 local time (06:47 GMT).

Newshour's James Menendez has been speaking to one of those watching the lift off. Pam Melroy is a former space shuttle commander and now Nasa's deputy administrator.

Photo shows: Rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launching on the Artemis I flight at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Nasa

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