For the first time, a woman and a Black astronaut are headed into deep space, breaking through the glass ceiling of low-Earth orbit as they attempt to circle the moon.
At 6:35 p.m. ET on April 1, NASA’s 32-story Space Launch System lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. With the horsepower of 160,000 Corvettes, the rocket sent up a column of fire and vapor over the Atlantic Coast. This was no April Fool’s Day gag, but a signal that the United States has returned to human-led space exploration.
Dispatches From The Front 