India, April 2 -- More than 50 years after the last human journey beyond Earth's orbit, NASA on Wednesday launched astronauts around the Moon again with the Artemis 2 mission.

The launch took place between its designated window - 6:24pm ET to 8:24pm ET - from Kennedy Space Center. A powerful rocket is carrying four astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon before returning to Earth.

Although the crew will not land on the Moon and will remain thousands of miles away at their closest point, the mission is an important step toward future lunar landings. It will test life support and other systems of the Orion spacecraft which is designed to carry humans into deep space.

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