Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen blasted off at 6:35 p.m. ET Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They are the first people to launch toward the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, more than 50 years ago.

The 10-day mission will send the crew around the Earth and then out to loop around the moon, where they'll see the far side of the moon.

NASA says space mission on track for Wednesday launch, aiming to carry a crew to the moon for first time in 5 decades

NASA's Artemis II mission is expected to last about 10 days, sending four astronauts on a high-speed journey around the moon and back in the first crewed lunar mission since the ​Apollo era. Artemis II is designed to pave the way for future missions aimed ‌at returning astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade.

The SLS did not so much lift from its pad as vault from it, carrying its four-person Artemis II crew—International Space Station veterans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christ

A giant rocket’s tower of flame lifted three Americans and one Canadian at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on the first crewed journey that will go around the moon since 1972.

Nasa's Artemis II mission has taken off and the spacecraft is now in orbit around the Earth before heading to the Moon and possibly travelling further from Earth than anyone has ever been before. Find out more here.