Residents along the Atlantic coast of Brevard County gathered early Monday to witness the Artemis II spacecraft launch from Kennedy Space Center. The mission marks NASA's first crewed test flight under the Artemis program, aiming to return humans to the moon. Launch windows opened at 1:57 a.m. and closed at 5:17 a.m., with the actual liftoff occurring at 2:46 a.m. EST. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Orion capsule lifted off from Launch Complex 39B, visible from Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. "It was a quiet but powerful moment," said Karen Lopez, a retiree who drove 45 minutes from Melbourne to watch from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. "You could hear the engines for miles." The launch comes nearly six years after the last human spaceflight from U.S. soil, when astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour landed in California in 2011. NASA officials confirmed the spacecraft is on course for a 10-day mission, with astronauts set to orbit the moon before returning to Earth. Local businesses along the Space Coast reported increased traffic and sales in the hours before the launch, with some restaurants selling out of breakfast items by 7 a.m. The event drew attention from across Florida, with visitors from Orlando and Tampa joining residents in viewing areas near the space center. "This is a historic day for our community," said Brevard County Commissioner Tom Henry. "We’re proud to be the home of the space program." The Artemis II crew includes three NASA astronauts and one from the Canadian Space Agency, marking the first international crewed lunar mission since the Apollo era.