JOB VACANCY MAULA HIJAB GAJI TINGGI

 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—Taller than the Statue of Liberty, the ochre rocket thundered into the sky around 1:47 A.M. ET, cleaving the darkness with a searing column of crackling fire and sending shudders through the ground near Cape Canaveral, Fla. it carried anspace capsule and a bounty of scientific payloads. But its most profound cargo is a psychic slice of the “American Dream”—a promise that, at least in spaceflight, the U.S. remains exceptional, with capabilities, ambitions and achievements as yet unsurpassed.

Tonight’s launch should have been a triumph. And in many ways, it was. But it also marked the culmination of a long, difficult and frustrating campaign to get a beleaguered rocket off the ground.

Still, thousands of visitors jammed the roads near Kennedy Space Center, many vying for coveted shoreline spots to witness what can still be rightfully called  The launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission—the first flight of the agency’s massive new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. For some of the spectators, it was their third trip to see this rocket launch from Florida’s “Space Coast,” the storied epicenter of U.S. spaceflight where Apollo astronauts last launched to the moon a half-century ago. And then there were the NASA leaders, the blue flight suit-clad representatives of the agency’s astronaut corps, and hundreds of caffeinated space reporters.

“Well, for once I might be speechless,” launch director  told her team after the launch. “What you have done today will inspire generations to come.”

Nearly three months have gone by since NASA’s first two launch attempts, both of which scrubbed  Hurricane Ian foiled a planned third attempt when dangerous forecasts sent the rocket back to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in late September. And when NASA finally rolled the stack back to the pad in early November, Hurricane Nicole blew through—before the agency could return the rocket to shelter in the VAB.

“I think it’s safe to say for all of us, we obviously would not have wanted to stay out there,” NASA’s, associate administrator for exploration systems development, told reporters on Nov. 11. “The best place for the vehicle in those kinds of things is the VAB. We could not make it back to the VAB and be safe. So we stayed where we were.”

The storm hammered the SLS with winds blowing at up to 100 miles per hour, tearing off sealants and presenting mission managers with an almost unthinkably bad predicament: Is it safe to launch a $4.1-billion rocket and spacecraft that have just weathered a category 1 storm?

Ultimately, officials decided to roll the dice and go ahead with the launch. Now, if the entire Artemis I mission is successful, it will mark the first tentative step toward returning humans to the lunar surface.