How far is the moon from Earth? NASA's Artemis rocket lifts off 50 years after Apollo

Cape Canaveral, Florida, saw the launch of Artemis I, NASA's most powerful rocket yet, at 1:47 pm on November 16. The rocket, with three test dummies on board, took off 50 years after the previous attempt and is set to return to the moon's surface. The $4.1 billion test flight is set to last 25 days.

The project is named after the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the Sun God, Apollo's, twin sister. The name is appropriate given its destination, but it will also attempt to do what Apollo did not - put the first woman on the moon.

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How far will Artemis have to go to touch the moon?

Artemis I takes off after a series of delaying setbacks (image via Getty/Joe Raedle)

The answer to how far the moon is from the earth will change depending on when you ask it. According to the American Space Agency, NASA, the distance between the earth and its only natural satellite is approximately 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers).

Since the moon does not orbit the earth in a perfect circle, there are times when it is further away from the blue planet than the aforementioned distance. The shortest distance between the two is about 226,000 miles (363,300 km) away and is called the perigee. The farthest distance, known as the apogee, is 251,000 miles (405,500 km).

Animation showing the distances between the Earth and the moon (image via NASA/JPL CalTech)

Several factors contribute to how long it will take for Artemis to get to the moon. Human journeys typically take longer than non-passenger flights. In 1959, the first attempt to reach the moon was made by the USSR using Luna-1. It was launched without a propulsion system, and the sphere-shaped satellite took 34 flight hours to make the trip. It is the fastest journey to date.

NASA sent eight crewed missions to the moon under the Apollo name, six of which landed successfully. Each spent about three days in space. Apollo 8 was the first rocket to orbit around the body, and Apollo 13's infamous flight consisted of a journey around the moon instead of a surface landing.

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More on NASA's new mission

NASA's first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, oversaw the countdown and lift-off of Artemis I. The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket burst off the launch pad from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and is set to send its Orion Capsule, occupied by mannequins on a journey around the moon and back.

Illustration showing the SLS configuration of the rocket (image via NASA)

In a statement, Jim Free, Nasa's Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, said that the Orion Capsule will go 40,000 miles (64,000km) past the moon, attempting to break the record previously held by the crew in Apollo 13.

Artemis launched on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket after several delays due to technical glitches and hydrogen fuel leaks. This is also the third launch attempt by the US agency after technical snags, back-to-back hurricanes, and two excursions trundling the spacecraft out of its hangar connection to the launch pad.

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This marks the first time an SLS system and an Orion Capsule have been launched together. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during the six successful Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, and Artemis aims to return humans onto lunar soil as early as 2025. NASA plans to establish a base on the Moon and send astronauts to Mars by late 2030s or early 2040s.