NASA Artemis II Launch LIVE: Astronauts receive final weather briefing

NASA is set to launch four astronauts as soon as Wednesday evening ‌on a 10-day flight around the moon, marking the most ambitious U.S. space mission in decades and a major step toward returning humans to the lunar surface before China’s first crewed landing.

NASA mission ⁠managers on Monday polled “go” to launch the Artemis II mission’s towering, 322-foot (98 m) Space Launch System rocket topped with the astronauts’ Orion crew capsule as early as 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT) on Wednesday.

It will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just one pad away from ‌where the last moon-bound astronauts of the U.S. Apollo program lifted off more than half a century ago. 

-Reuters