The crew, three Americans and a Canadian, are the first humans to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. They will not land on the surface, but the mission will pave the way for future visits.
Polling has consistently found that most people would prefer NASA spend money on things like monitoring climate change and averting asteroid collisions rather than human spaceflight.
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover met with young space enthusiasts at the Kennedy Space Center in January. While overall opinions of NASA remain high, polls find human exploration of the moon ranks pretty low.