NASA's Artemis II Moon mission lifted off Wednesday from the US state of Florida, carrying four astronauts on the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years.

The Space Launch System rocket, with the Orion spacecraft on top, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time.

It is NASA's first crewed mission under the Artemis program. The four-member crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.