First Human Lunar Flight in 50 Years Slated for March 6

This photo provided NASA shows NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, front right, Jack Hathaway, front left, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, back right, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, preparing to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations. (Photo: AP)

NASA is aiming for early March to launch four astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The Artemis II mission is set to take astronauts on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. It will be the first time people travel that far into space since the Apollo era and is seen as a key step towards a future lunar landing.

NASA has set March 6 as the earliest possible launch date (early March 7 in the UK), after completing a successful “wet dress rehearsal” at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The test involves filling the rocket with fuel and running through the countdown procedure.

It was the team’s second attempt at the rehearsal. The first, held at the start of February, was stopped early because of a hydrogen fuel leak at the launch pad. NASA said problems with seals and filters have now been fixed.

In this image provided NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Photo: AP)

“Yesterday we were able to fully tank the SLS rocket within the planned timeline we also successfully demonstrated the launch countdown,” NASA’s Lori Glaze told a news conference, as reported the BBC.

She added, “Every night I look up at the Moon and I see it, and I get real excited because I can feel she’s calling us and we’re ready.”Story continues below this ad

The four-member crew includes three Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Chrina Koch and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

They will travel aboard NASA’s 98-metre-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The rocket has flown once before, in November 2022, during the Artemis I mission, but that flight carried no astronauts.

The crew will sit inside the Orion capsule, which sits on top of the rocket. The spacecraft is about the size of a minibus inside. It is where the astronauts will eat, sleep and work during the mission.

On the first day, they will orbit the Earth. If all systems perform as expected, they will then head towards the Moon. The journey there will take about four days.Story continues below this ad

The astronauts will fly around the far side of the Moon, the side not visible from Earth at a dance of between 6,500 and 9,500 kilometres above the surface. They will spend several hours studying and photographing the Moon before beginning the four-day journey back to Earth.

The mission will end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

(With inputs from agencies)