While four astronauts aboard the Artemis II Orion spacecraft didn't go to the moon, the mission that lifted off Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station paved the way for a mission there in 2028.
With NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard, the Integrity blazed its way into the heavens from Lauchpad 39-B at 6:35 p.m.
The countdown clock held at T-minus 10 minutes for a while as Mission Control worked through a checklist. The launch window opened at 6:24.
During the 10-day mission, the crew will test Orions' systems and their ability to make a trip to the moon. The craft will circle the moon, providing images of the "back side" that have never been seen by human eyes, and pass about 5,000 miles from the moon. It will be the farthest from Earth astronauts have flown since the Apollo program that originally went to the moon.
The Orion capsule is expected to travel 600,000 miles before returning. Artemis is scheduled to return to Earth via splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near California on Friday, April 10.
The plan is to send an Artemis IV mission to the moon's surface, putting humans there for the first time since 1972. Missions to Mars could be a future step is Artemis is successful.
