Artemis II, the First Crewed Lunar Mission in 50 Years, Has Launched

At 6:35 p.m. Eastern time, NASA's SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The four-person crew—Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover—will fly around the Moon and return to Earth on a 10-day mission.

NASA plans to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028 during Artemis IV.