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.

Four astronauts lifted off before sunset Wednesday, starting a historic 10-day journey to fly by the moon and propel people farther into space than they have ever gone before. The Artemis II mission is scheduled to loop around the moon for the first time since the Apollo era.

NASA's Artemis II astronauts launched Wednesday, April 1, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending America back to the moon for first time since 1972.

It’s humanity’s first flight to the moon since 1972. In a throwback to Apollo, NASA’s Artemis II mission will send four astronauts on a lunar fly-around. They’ll hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon,

Four astronauts took off on a flight around the moon in what is humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the leadoff in NASA’s push toward a lunar landing in two years.

Artemis II has officially launched. It's NASA's first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Connor Ling

NASA holds its first press conference after the successful launch of Artemis II, the first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years. (NASA)

Under a mission scheduled to launch Wednesday evening, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to trace a figure-eight around the moon aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft — an endeavor known as Artemis II — making them the first people to travel this far since the Apollo missions of the 1970s.