On April 1, four astronauts blasted off on what will be a 10-day voyage around the moon and back. Their mission, the first to send humans to the moon since 1972, will test key systems for two lunar landings in 2028, which will, in turn, lay the foundation for a permanent base on the moon's surface.

The Artemis II crew — which consists of commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are slingshotting around Earth before initiating a translunar injection burn to send them on a roughly 245,000-mile (394,000 kilometers) flight to lunar orbit.