More than five decades after humans last travelled beyond Earth’s orbit, NASA on Wednesday launched astronauts on a journey around the Moon as part of the Artemis 2 mission. The launch occurred within its scheduled window of 6:24 pm to 8:24 pm ET from the Kennedy Space Center.

A powerful rocket is carrying four NASA astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—on a 10-day trip around the Moon before returning to Earth. Although they will not land and will remain thousands of miles away at their closest approach, the mission is a crucial step toward future lunar landings. It will test life-support and other key systems of the Orion spacecraft, designed to carry humans into deep space.

NASA aims to land astronauts on the Moon in upcoming missions, possibly as early as 2028, with support from private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

The last time humans walked on the Moon was during Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. After that, lunar exploration lost momentum, and NASA shifted focus to projects closer to Earth, such as the space shuttle programme and the International Space Station.

The Artemis programme was revived during the presidency of Donald Trump and continued under his successor, with Artemis I successfully completing an uncrewed flight around the Moon in 2022.

The astronauts launched aboard the Space Launch System rocket, which stands 322 feet tall and weighs 5.75 million pounds when fully fuelled. Once in space, they will continue their journey in the Orion capsule.

During the mission, the crew will travel up to about 43,000 miles from Earth, potentially setting a record for the farthest distance humans have travelled—surpassing the achievement of Apollo 13. The astronauts also carried personal items: Glover brought his Bible, Hansen carried family pendants, Wiseman took a notepad and pencil, and Koch brought handwritten messages from loved ones.