It's a great day for this team," Wiseman called out.They won’t pause for a stopover or orbit the moon like Apollo 8's first lunar visitors did so famously on Christmas Eve 1968.But they stand to become the most distant humans ever when their capsule zooms past the moon and continues another 6,400km beyond, before making a U-turn and tearing straight home to a splashdown in the Pacific.Once settled in a high orbit around Earth, the astronauts planned to assume manual control and practice steering their capsule around the rocket’s detached upper stage, venturing within 10 metres They’ll also catch snippets of a total solar eclipse, donning eclipse glasses as the moon briefly blocks the sun from their perspective and the corona is revealed.All of NASA’s moon plans — a surge in launches over the next several years leading to a sustainable moon base for astronauts assisted by robotic rovers and drones — hinge on Artemis II going well.It’s been more than three years since Artemis I, the only other time NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion capsule have soared