Artemis II lifts off, sending first crewed Moon mission in decades
The Artemis II mission does not include a lunar landing. The crew's task is to fly around the Moon and return to Earth (Photo: REUTERS/Steve Nesius TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
NASA has launched Artemis II on a historic crewed mission to the Moon, marking humanity’s return to deep space exploration more than 50 years after Apollo 17.
The 10-day test flight will not land on the Moon but it is expected to carry the four-person crew - Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency - farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled.
The Orion spacecraft lifted off at 6:35 p.m. from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, embarking on the first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century. No humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Artemis II is designed as a critical test flight to evaluate the Orion crew capsule, as well as life support and medical systems, ahead of future missions, including the next moon landing scheduled for Artemis IV in 2028.
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