For the first time in more than half a century, a lunar mission is underway.

NASA’s SLS rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 PM Wednesday, carrying four astronauts on a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon and back. This is the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

If all goes as planned, Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will set course to loop behind the Moon and set a record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth: 252,000 miles.

Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson addressed the crew before liftoff: “Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, on this historic mission you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation. Good luck, Godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go.”

Not Many Potholes On The Road To Liftoff

The launch came after a smooth countdown, with a bit of drama sprinkled in to keep things interesting. Engineers resolved a last-minute Flight Termination System issue that briefly put the mission at risk of a “No-Go” status later in the countdown, and later, concerns arose with a temporary drop in S-band communications to Orion.

The launch team confirmed the battery was resolved with just over an hour before the scheduled launch window opened at 6:24 PM. and later, it was decided that the communications glitch was within limits. The launch ultimately occurred 11 minutes into the 2-hour window. Not bad for a second flight of a heavy-lift rocket.

A Day In Orbit, Then To The Moon

The crew will spend their first 24 hours in an elliptical orbit around Earth before a planned Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) burn boosts the spacecraft toward the Moon.