Four astronauts embarked on a historic ten-day journey on Wednesday
NASA’s Artemis II mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026. © RT
NASA launched Artemis II, its first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years, on Wednesday.
After
a brief delay due to technical issues, a rocket carrying NASA’s Reid
Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy
Hansen, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
As
part of their ten-day journey, the astronauts will circle the Moon and
return to Earth in an Orion capsule. It is the first crewed mission
beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Orion
is set to circle the Moon on April 6. The astronauts will travel
farther from Earth than any humans in history, surpassing the record of
400,171 km (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13, according to ScienceAlert.