Watch: NASA's Artemis II launches

It is the work of ages. It's the work of countless minds, countless decisions. And as we come down to inside 30 seconds, let's just listen to the launch of Artemis II. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] --ride the most powerful rocket NASA has ever launched. Sound suppression. Water is flowing. And here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7. RS-25 engines lift. 4, 3, 2, 1, booster ignition. And liftoff. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.

Good roll pitch. [? STAN: ?] Roger, roll pitch. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] Houston, now controlling the flight of Integrity on the Artemis II mission around the moon. [? STAN: ?] The Integrity AMT high.

AMT high. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] On time, passing 30 seconds into the flights. Integrity passes the alternate vehicle, target milestone. Mission Control Houston seeing good performance of the four main engines on the Space Launch System core stage. Integrity 3 miles in altitude, traveling more than 1,200 miles per hour. Mission elapsed time passing one minute, approaching max q. [? STAN: ?] [INAUDIBLE] max q on Ponce de Leon.

Stan, we have you loud and clear on Ponce de Leon. [? STAN: ?] Have you the same. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] Communication signal transfer were confirmed as Integrity and its crew go supersonic, approaching 90 seconds into the Artemis II mission. Integrity is 14 miles in altitude, 8 miles downrange, traveling more than 2,600 miles per hour. One minute 50 seconds of mission-elapsed time. Standing by for main engine throttle down to 85% ahead of solid rocket booster separation, expected at the two minute, nine-second mark. We see throttle down. Confirm separation. Main engines throttling up. Guidance converged.

Integrity, guidance converged, performance nominal, upper-stage RCS ready. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] So we're about to see the separation of-- [? STAN: ?] Integrity SM priming complete.

SM priming complete. [? COMMENTATOR: ?] Two minutes 45 seconds of mission-elapsed time into the Artemis II mission. Thrusters on Integrity and upper stage confirmed in a ready state ahead of the service module [? fairing ?] separation. Three minutes into the flight--

We are gathering ourselves here in the studio for what was very close to an on-time launch and a very impressive one. 3 miles away is the building where we're sitting. And the sound and then the wave of power, the disturbance just in the atmosphere, hit us. And it felt like an earthquake. Everything was rattling the windows, the ceilings. The power was unbelievable.

Yeah. It's really something. I missed that from the shuttle program because the shuttle was very similar, same type booster, same type engines. But this rocket has even more power, definitely more of an earthquake. No question.

I guess I'm so used to scrub this, weather that, didn't work out. And this is the first one I've been live for. And I guess I'm a good luck charm because it went off pretty well.

Good job.

Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] future.

I wasn't prepared for that. Wow. It's amazing. So we've seen some technical milestones happen that are very encouraging, Bill. Can you walk us through that?

Yeah. Just a few moments ago, you can see some little sparkles coming away from the light of those engines. That was these panels on the service module just below the Orion capsule that are designed to come away in flight. And they did, right on schedule. No, this is just a drive to orbit now. These main engines are going to push this all the way to its initial orbit. And then the Orion in its upper stage will separate to fly on their own. But this is going like clockwork so far. On the telemetry, you can see-- this is an infrared camera view. But the telemetry you can see up in the righthand corner shows you the velocity and the altitude right now. And as you can see that velocity number really climbing, they are accelerating. Because think about it, Tony. As you consume propellant, you're losing weight, but the engines have the same thrust. So you go faster and faster and faster.

And the G-forces on the crew are building up during this time frame as well. And actually, the engines, because they're throttleable, will actually throttle down as they reach the altitude to orbit to reduce the G-forces on the crew. And they'll hold around for less than five.

So they're now at 74 miles from Earth. So that is over the line. We can say they're in space now? Or do you count it at 100 plus?

No. 62 miles is typically where we-- yes, yeah. And Reid Wiseman just said a minute ago they can see the moonrise. He said, I can see a beautiful moonrise out the window. And they're high enough to see it, even though it's below our horizon.

That's an amazing detail. It's an amazing detail. I remember in 1969, when CBS covered the moon launch, the day after-- this was in a documentary recently-- the Flat Earth Society of the UK reconsidered their position. [LAUGHTER] I wonder if any minds have been turned toward science this morning. Bill, I thought about that as you talk about the moon over the horizon, but viewable from where they are. It's an amazing thing.

Yeah. Another milestone they've reached is what they call a three-engine press. In other words, even if one of their main engines failed at this point, they can still conduct a by normal mission by just burning the other three engines a little longer. That's another major milestone.

And they are going to low Earth orbit.

Well, actually, it's an elliptical orbit.

It's an elliptical orbit.

It's low on one side, but it's a little bit high on the other. It's up about 1,300 miles, the apogee, they call it, the high point of the orbit. And once they get around to that point, they're going to fire their engines to raise the low point to get it a little bit more. Right now, the low point's about 17 miles. So they're definitely going to fire an engine to raise that up here shortly.

But now that they're up, their time is now being tracked moment to moment. Mike, we were talking earlier. You say there's a phenomenon of chasing the red line, right? You've got your schedule mapped out with such precision. And you make sure, moment to moment, you're keeping up with it. Can you talk about that?

Yeah, that's absolutely right, particularly on a mission like this, where it's such a short duration. We're only talking 10 days. And so as you can imagine, the controllers, the planners, they want to take advantage of every moment of this mission. And so they're going to have their days lined up in five-minute increments, one-minute increments. And so they're going to be, as we say, chasing that red line, making sure they keep up with the task that they have. Because if you fall behind, then that means somebody's got to do some replanning and adjust the mission. And so you don't want to cause that.