Blown away! Watch NASA's Artemis 1 Launch Abort System blast off into space (video) - Space.com

Rage against the dying of the airy successful this caller video.

NASA's Orion spacecraft cockpit shines successful pinkish from the glow of its Launch Abort System (LAS) tower, ripping distant from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and spacecraft stack. This each happened arsenic planned during the epic motorboat of the Artemis 1 ngo to the moon Nov. 16. 

The movie-like moment, which looks similar a country from "Interstellar" oregon "Star Wars," shows the LAS flying distant from the cockpit wrong show of a mannequin astronaut that is investigating retired radiation and different abstraction hazards earlier humans ascent connected board.

Lockheed Martin, which built the Orion spacecraft, shared the cockpit presumption on Twitter (opens successful caller tab) connected Friday (Dec. 1), anticipating what astronauts volition spot with their ain eyes starting with Artemis 2's expected travel astir the satellite successful 2024. Lunar landing ngo Artemis 3 volition travel arsenic soon arsenic 2025, with much Artemis program missions successful the works.

In photos: Artemis 1 launch: Amazing views of NASA's satellite rocket debut 

The SLS Launch Abort System generates capable thrust to assistance 26 elephants disconnected the ground, according to NASA statistics (opens successful caller tab). That's much powerfulness than what is disposable to 5 F-22 jets. 

NASA's mentation of 'The Force' is needed to propulsion astronauts distant from the SLS rocket swiftly and safely successful lawsuit of emergency. If the motorboat brings the unit to abstraction without incident, however, the LAS operation tears distant into abstraction to trim the wide of the capsule earlier its travel to the moon.

Epic video from passim Artemis 1 has kept the nationalist riding on with the spacecraft astir the satellite and towards Earth again, bringing astonishing unrecorded views of the lunar surface and our distant planet that near NASA engineers "giddy" with joy. 

Orion is expected to splash down Dec. 11, aft pursuing successful the footsteps of generations of missions featuring their ain abort systems.

Related: The 25 scariest spaceflight moments amusement dangers successful orbit and beyond

Most abstraction systems with humans connected committee person been fitted with ejection seats oregon motorboat abort towers done crewed history, with the objection of second missions of the abstraction shuttle that alternatively had ngo abort options with the unit remaining wrong the vehicle.

Perhaps the astir melodramatic usage of a real-life abort utilizing a motorboat flight operation was the Soviet Union's Soyuz T-10-1 motorboat connected Sept. 26, 1983. Russian abstraction writer Anatoly Zak says the strategy saved the lives of the launching unit arsenic it pulled them away (opens successful caller tab) from an exploding rocket inactive connected the motorboat pad. 

The latest crewed abort connected Oct. 11, 2018 during Soyuz ngo MS-10 to the International Space Station did not usage the flight tower, arsenic that had been already jettisoned, but the unit utilized an alternate abort mode to marque it backmost to crushed swiftly and safely. (You tin perceive successful to the abort arsenic it happened successful the video above.)

Private abstraction providers person their ain flight systems connected their rockets, arsenic was demonstrated during a melodramatic Blue Origin uncrewed launch failure of the New Shepard strategy connected Sept. 12, 2022. The exigency flight strategy pulled the capsule safely away from the booster, which was presumably destroyed, during launch. Blue Origin is investigating the origin and plans to motorboat radical to abstraction again nary earlier than 2023, aft having conducted six crewed missions with nary incident.

Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller (opens successful caller tab)?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a publication astir abstraction medicine. Follow her connected Twitter @howellspace (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or Facebook (opens successful caller tab).