March 30 (Reuters) - NASA's Artemis program is the U.S. effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era and eventually establish a sustained human presence there, a goal Washington has framed as central to maintaining space leadership amid growing competition from China.

For the first time since 1972, human beings are about to travel to the Moon.

Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, the 32-story rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered to witness the dawn of this new era.