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.

NASA's Artemis 2 mission will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, the first crewed mission toward the moon in over 50 years.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be the first people to launch toward the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.