NASA’s Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday evening, sending astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

“This is one of the reasons I got into spaceflight to begin with,” Georgia Tech Professor John Christian said.

Helping make the launch possible were 17 Georgia companies and several researchers.

Christian used to work with NASA, helping develop the navigation algorithms used during the first Artemis launch.He said the mission is about setting up to make the moon a resource for Earth.

“Making it really an extension of humanity, an extension of our economy, an extension of everything that we do to not just be Earth, but to really include the moon for the first time,” Christian said.

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