NASA launches Artemis II crewed Moon mission..

Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on Artemis II, a high-stakes voyage around the moon marking the United States’ most significant step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade, amid a growing space race with China.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, topped with its Orion crew capsule, lifted off just before sunset from Kennedy Space Centre, sending its first crew of three U.S. astronauts and one Canadian into Earth orbit.

The 32-storey rocket soared into clear skies, leaving a towering plume of white vapour in its wake.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the launch marked the beginning of more ambitious missions, including plans to build a lunar base to sustain a long-term human presence.

If successful, the crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — will travel around the moon and return during a nearly 10-day mission, testing the spacecraft while venturing farther into space than humans have gone in decades.

The mission is the first crewed test flight of the Artemis programme, NASA’s successor to the Apollo era, and the first time in 53 years that astronauts have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit toward the moon.

It serves as a critical rehearsal for future missions aimed at landing humans on the lunar surface, with NASA targeting 2028 for a return mission focused on the moon’s south pole.

The last time astronauts walked on the moon was during the Apollo program in 1972, a milestone achieved only by the United States.