Audio

Ian had passed through and the rocket had been wheeled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building to shelter. But on this particular morning in November, everything held together. The countdown continued. The clock ticked down. And at one forty-seven in the morning, the Space Launch System lit up the Florida sky for the very first time. People had driven from hundreds of miles away. They sat on the hoods of their cars in the darkness. And when the rocket lit, it was, by all accounts, extraordinary