11:13

Four astronauts blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US, on Wednesday evening on a monumental 10-day mission to circumnavigate the moon.

Axar.az informs, citing CNN, the mission crew includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.

The historic and risky lunar venture will mark the first time astronauts return to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years. The mission could travel farther from Earth than any human ever has, breaking the Apollo program’s distance record.

Shortly after launch, the crew reported a malfunction in one of the Orion spacecraft’s most anticipated features — its onboard toilet — but the issue appears to have been resolved now.

"Let me begin by congratulating the team at NASA and our brave astronauts on the successful launch of Artemis II. It was quite something," he said during an address to the nation on Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

The president highlighted the scope of the mission, noting that the spacecraft will travel further than any crewed rocket in history.

"It will be traveling further than any manned rocket has ever flown and will very substantially pass the moon, go around it and come back home from a distance that has never been done before. It’s amazing," he said.