After years of postponements and close to $100 billion in spending, NASA has launched the first mission to send astronauts around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The Artemis II astronauts — three Americans and one Canadian — hurtled deeper into space than any other humans during a moon flyby Monday that marks NASA’s lunar comeback.

"The crew will use the opportunity to study the solar corona — the Sun’s outermost atmosphere — as it glows around the lunar edge. They also will watch for flashes of light from meteoroids striking th...