Sit back and let us take you on a journey to the Moon with Artemis II | ‘Absolutely phenomenal’: …

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Sit back and let us take you on a journey to the Moon with Artemis II

On launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, billions of dollars' worth of rocket sits on the tarmac, ready to take off.

More than 50 years after our last visit, this is humankind's next moonshot. If all goes well for NASA's Artemis II mission, the astronauts on board could fly the furthest that humans have ever gone.

So how does the next generation's journey to the Moon compare to other famous space flights, and what should we be looking out for?

In the hours leading up to the launch, four astronauts are strapped into the crew module of the Orion spacecraft. You can think of this as the heart.

'Absolutely phenomenal': Astronauts in awe of Earth as they prepare for next phase of Moon mission

The Artemis II astronauts are "doing great" and the spacecraft is "performing well", Nasa chief Jared Isaacman says

The crew are currently orbiting the Earth before heading towards the Moon in a few hours – why are they going and what are they doing onboard now?

So what does our planet look like from space? See the crescent Earth from 70,000km up – and just how tiny the Moon looks from the astronauts' perspective

Looking down on Earth, mission specialist Christina Koch says: "You can actually make out the coastline of the continent, you can make out rivers because of the sun glare, you can see high thunder clouds"

Artemis II: Nasa’s crewed rocket lifts off to begin 10-day lunar journey – as it happened

Full report – Nasa’s Artemis II rocket lifts off for historic moon mission

Nasa launched Artemis II on a historic crewed mission to the moon.

The 10-day test flight, which will not land on the moon, is a mission packed with milestones. The mission includes the first woman and first person of color to fly into cislunar space, the area between Earth’s orbit and the moon.

Artemis II’s Orion space capsule could fly them farther from Earth than any human being before them.

We’re closing our live blog of the launch of Artemis II now after watching the space rocket’s spectacular launch into a clear blue Florida sky from the Kennedy Space Center.

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