NASA launched its next-generation rocket Wednesday morning on a crewless voyage around the moon, half a century after the final lunar mission of the Apollo era. The Artemis I mission will see the Orion spacecraft on a 25-day flight that will bring the capsule within 97 kilometres of the lunar surface before flying 64,400 kilometres beyond the moon and looping back to Earth. The capsule is expected to splash down on Dec. 11.