Four astronauts launched from Cape Canaveral in humanity’s first crewed mission to the moon since 1972.
Artemis II blasted off at 6:35 pm local time, its huge Space Launch System rocket carrying the capsule Orion into orbit. Orion will fire its own engines today and reach lunar orbit in four days, which could take the crew further from Earth than any human has ever traveled.
The astronauts will not land on the moon, but NASA plans to do so with Artemis IV in 2028; the eventual goal is for a permanent base there. The timeline is tight: the US is in a modern-day space race with China, which aims to send its own taikonauts to the moon by 2030.