Artemis II blasts off for moon mission in glorious return to golden age of space exploration
Artemis II successfully launched into Earth’s orbit from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, marking the crucial first step in mankind’s historic return to deep space and the moon.
A crew of four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, are onboard the towering 322-foot rocket for humanity’s first lunar flight since 1972.
The perilous 10-day mission is expected to take them 250,000 miles away from home, further from Earth than any human has ever gone.
They will also gaze upon on sights never-before-seen by the human eye as they round the far side of the moon with the sun’s daylight shining up it.
That striking view was shadowed in darkness when Apollo astronauts last flew to the moon over 50 years ago.
