NASA's Artemis I Mission Launches to the Moon After Months of Delays

NASA's finally heading back to the moon ... its new rocket has finally successfully launched -- and without a hitch -- after months of delays due to a slew of issues.

The Artemis I mission kicked off early Wednesday morning at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL ... beginning a 25-day mission that'll set the company back 4 billion big ones.

The Orion capsule sits on top of the rocket ... and it'll detach and soar about 60 miles above the moon before coming back to Earth. Don't worry, though -- the only passengers on this test flight are mannequins.

As we reported, there's a lot riding on this mission -- it's the first launch of the massive, most powerful rocket ever ... and it could forge a path for astronauts to revisit our moon as early as 2024.

The launch was set to go down at the end of August, but had issues left and right -- including a thunderstorm, lightning bolts striking towers near the rocket, and even a fuel leak.