As people around the world paused to observe Easter Sunday, the Artemis II astronauts offered a message of love to the world and took a moment to honor their crewmate, a first-time flier in space — all after hearing from a NASA Apollo astronaut.

The Artemis II mission represents the first time astronauts have launched beyond low Earth orbit since 1972.

Artemis II, NASA's first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years, represents a shift from short visits toward sustained exploration, where understanding lunar geology and resources becomes as important as the engineering that gets astronauts there.

NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission will get a maximum of 252,757 miles (406,773 kilometers) from Earth on April 6, breaking the mark set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.

A Sky News correspondent used the Artemis II launch to take a shot at the Apollo program, suggesting the original moon missions fell short of representing humanity because the astronauts were all white men.

When Apollo 12, NASA's second lunar landing mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, the space vehicle was struck by lightning— twice.