March 29 (UPI) -- NASA officials said Sunday that the crew, Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule are ready to launch the Artemis II mission to circle the moon.
In a mission set to take humans farther from the Earth than they have gone in nearly 50 years, the space agency will start its countdown to launch the four-person crew on a 10-day mission that is being billed as a test flight.
If weather permits on Wednesday, the Artemis II crew -- Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover -- will take Orion on its first crewed flight, an important step in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon and eventually travel to Mars.
"We are ready," Lori Glaze, NASA's acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said during a press briefing on Sunday.
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