(BBC News) NASA has said it hopes to send astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon as soon as February.
The US space agency had previously committed to launching no later than the end of April but said it aims to bring the mission forward.
It has been 50 years since any country has flown a crewed lunar mission. NASA will send four astronauts there and back to test systems.
The Artemis II mission is the second launch of the Artemis program, whose aim is to land astronauts and eventually establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface.
Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s acting deputy associate administrator said it would be an important moment in the human exploration of space.
“We together have a front-row seat to history,” she told a news conference this afternoon.
“The launch window could open as early as the fifth of February, but we want to emphasize that safety is our top priority.”
Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson explained that the powerful rocket system built to take the astronauts to the Moon, the Space Launch System (SLS) was “pretty much stacked and ready to go.”
All that remained was to complete the crew capsule, called Orion, connected to SLS and to complete ground tests.
The first Artemis mission lasted 25 days and saw the launch of an uncrewed spacecraft in November 2022. It saw a spacecraft travel around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
The mission was successful, though there were issues with the heatshield as the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. These have since been addressed.