In Florida, from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral — from the Kennedy Space Center — the rocket of the lunar mission "Artemis 2" (Artemis 2) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully launched on Wednesday with four astronauts on board, LETA reports citing DPA.
The crew of the "Artemis 2" mission includes three American astronauts and one Canadian astronaut. They will be the first humans to fly around the Moon since NASA's lunar program ended in 1972.
The mission will last nine and a half days, during which the astronauts will orbit the Moon, traveling approximately 6,400 kilometers beyond it, thereby setting a new record for the farthest flight of a human in space.
NASA plans to establish a base on the Moon and land astronauts on its surface by 2028.
The crew of "Artemis 2" consists of experienced NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, for whom this flight will be the first. Glover became the first African American, and Koch the first female astronaut, to participate in a lunar mission.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>We're going around the Moon. Come watch with us. Artemis II's four-astronaut crew is lifting off from @NASAKennedy on an approximately 10-day mission that will bring us closer to living on the Moon and Mars. The launch window opens at 6:24pm ET (2224 UTC). https://t.co/X27QJejNDt
— NASA (@NASA) April 1, 2026
