NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Chris O’Meara/AP hide caption toggle caption Chris O’Meara/AP The Artemis II mission rumbled, roared, and rocketed into the sky at dusk on Wednesday, beginning a journey around the moon and back. Four astronauts are aboard for the first human rendezvous with the moon since the last Apollo spaceflight in 1972. “We have a beautiful moonrise,” mission commander Reid Wiseman said shortly after liftoff. “We’re headed right at it.” The crew will travel more than 250,000 miles from Earth — farther than any other human beings in history. Our family watched the Artemis launch through glossy eyes. To see that rocket soar into the spring sky, bearing human beings into outer space, reminded us: while we see scenes every day of rockets that deliver destruction and death across the globe, human minds can also send rockets into the heavens on missions of discovery. The launch made us think of all the mechanics, physicists, …