Artemis II builds on prior missions including Artemis II and early Apollo missions, including Apollo 8, which set out for a lunar flyby.

Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two y...

At 7:49 p.m. Eastern time, the Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds, accelerating with 6,000 pounds of thrust and committing the crew of four astronauts — three Ameri...