From the early days of the space race to a new mission now in space, the journey back to the moon has been decades in the making.
In the 1960s, cameras captured astronauts in training, preparing for three-day missions beyond Earth as the world watched human spaceflight take shape.
Across the country, including in Southwest Virginia, people followed along from their living rooms and even while shopping, watching rockets lift off on television as space travel became part of everyday life.
By the 1970s, astronauts like Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert were helping shape what came next, testing space shuttle concepts designed to launch, deploy satellites and return to Earth for reuse.
Now, that future is here again. Artemis II is in space on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years and signaling that the next chapter of exploration is already underway.