The Vulcan rocket lifted off from Cape Carnival, Florida, to carry a NASA probe to the moon, after more than 50 years in which the US agency has not carried out any lunar landing missions, even though it has sent probes and satellites around the moon.
The Vulcan rocket was built by the United Launch Alliance, which includes Boeing and Lockheed Martin, but has engines made by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin. The Peregrine spacecraft, which will travel 50 days to the Moon, was developed by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology. It will land in a place called Sinus Viscositatis (Latin for "sticky gulf") on the visible surface of the Moon to study its composition and radiation levels, it announced biziday.ro.
Peregrine was built with the support of NASA, which will pay $108 million for five experiments on the moon as part of a program aimed at reducing the cost of sending equipment to the lunar surface.
Watch the launch of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Carnival, Florida
If the launch is successful, a second launch will take place in April. The US Space Force plans to observe two successful launches with the Vulcan rocket before using it to launch an unmanned spacecraft on a test mission to deliver a payload to the International Space Station.