By: Hannah Moore

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) — National Aeronautics and Space Administration prepare for the Artemis II test flight that will launch no earlier than Wednesday, April 1.

The flight follows the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, which launched to the moon aboard the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

“The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft,” NASA stated. “It will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions.”

The flight will hold four astronauts on a 10-day journey completing a full circle around the moon. The Artemis II crew includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. All astronauts are held at the Crew Quarters inside NASA Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building where they spend the final countdown phase focusing on readiness and technical verification. Each astronaut also remains in quarantine with health monitoring and fitness checks.

Astronaut Christina Koch stated why she believes this mission is important for all humans on Earth.

“It is our strong hope that this mission is the start of an era where everyone, where every person on earth, can look at the moon and also think of it as a destination,” Koch said.

The launch will mark the first time humans have traveled around the moon since 1972. Specifically, Artemis II will carry astronauts farther than any other mission from Earth to the Moon in over a half century. The crew will conduct investigations with scientists on Earth to learn and understand how more humans can safely fly t0 the Moon in the near future.

NASA stated their own weather officers with the United States Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 continue to watch the weather conditions before operations are conducted. As of now, there is an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions with concerns of cloud coverage and high winds in the area. A live broadcast is available with full behind the scenes coverage at 12:50 p.m. on April 1.