Artemis II launches on NASA’s first trip to the moon in more than 50 years
NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center under clear skies, sending its four‑person crew on a 10‑day journey around the moon — the agency’s first lunar trip in more than 50 years. The spacecraft is currently in low Earth orbit about 10,000 miles up and will climb to nearly 50,000 miles before redirecting toward the moon tomorrow night. The mission will take the crew roughly 252,000 miles from Earth, farther than Apollo 13 traveled in 1970. The crew includes three Americans and one Canadian, as well as the first Black astronaut and the first woman to travel around the moon. NASA says everything is going well so far, but the administrator stresses the mission won’t be considered a success until the crew returns safely to Earth.