CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — “Oh, guys! It’s going!”
With a gasp of excitement, 3News’ Betsy Kling watched as NASA made history early Wednesday morning with the launch of their Artemis 1 moon rocket.
Kling was watching the launch while co-anchoring extended Artemis live streaming coverage for TEGNA stations across the country.
Although she was not there to witness the launch in person, her reaction was still very special.
“That’s amazing."
She said at one point.
“That’s incredible.”
Kling said at another moment.
“I can’t wait to see what people who wake up tomorrow morning and go, ‘Wow! It happened!’ I can go to work and say, ‘I was watching. It was so great.’”
You can watch extended coverage of the Artemis launch -- and see Kling's live reactions to the special moment -- in the player below:
Kling had been in Florida to cover the first launch attempts, but those had been scrubbed.
At liftoff, NASA declared: "We rise together! Back to the moon and beyond!"
"With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before," NASA explains. "We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: Sending the first astronauts to Mars."
The Artemis mission also has ties to Northeast Ohio.
Testing on the Orion space capsule was conducted at the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky. The Orion capsule then traveled to Mansfield in March of 2020 where it was loaded on NASA's Supper Guppy plane to be transported to the Kennedy Space Center.
"NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before," NASA explains. "Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities."
Once Orion is done orbiting the moon with Artemis 1 mission, the space capsule will be brought back to the NASA facility in Sandusky for additional testing.