Half a century after Apollo: NASA prepares to send humans to the moon

NASA has begun a two-day pre-launch countdown rehearsal for the Artemis II mission, the first manned mission to the Moon since the Apollo programme.

The test will be a key milestone that will determine the launch date of a new lunar rocket with four astronauts on board.

The rehearsal involves fuelling the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with super-cooled propellant and practising all procedures right up to the moment, a few tens of seconds before the engines are fired. If the test is successful, NASA could attempt a launch as early as a week from now.

Mission Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew are already in quarantine to eliminate the risk of disease before the flight. They will be the first humans to go to the moon since 1972. They are watching the rehearsal from Houston and will arrive at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida after the rocket is officially cleared for flight.

The 98-metre-tall rocket was installed on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center a fortnight ago. During the test, experts will fill its tanks with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant, stopping about 30 seconds before the engines are conditionally ignited.

Initially, refuelling tests and a possible launch were planned earlier, but severe cold weather forced NASA to postpone the procedure by two days. Now the earliest possible launch date is called 8 February.

The Artemis II crew will travel in an Orion spacecraft mounted on top of the SLS rocket. Astronauts from the U.S. and Canada will fly around the Moon on a free return trajectory and head straight back to Earth without landing on the surface of the satellite.

The mission will last nearly 10 days, ending with a landing in the Pacific Ocean. The flight will be an important step towards future astronaut landings on the Moon as part of the Artemis programme.

As part of the Apollo programme, NASA sent 24 astronauts to the Moon between 1968 and 1972, and 12 of them landed on its surface. Artemis II will be the first manned lunar mission in more than half a century and a key milestone in man's return to the Moon.