Favourable weather

NASA predicts an 80% chance of favourable weather on 2 April, with the main concerns being cloud cover and the potential for strong winds, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The Artemis SLS rocket is 98 meters tall, has four main engines and two side boosters.

The Artemis II crew will orbit the Moon, and the 10-day flight will end with a landing in the Pacific Ocean.

This lunar mission is historic because it is the first to include a woman, Christina Koch, a Black man, pilot Victor Glover, and a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen, from the Canadian Space Agency.

Everything is ready

Mission commander Reid Wiseman announced that everything is ready for the launch, which was scheduled almost two months ago but delayed by technical and weather issues.

"We are ready to go, the team is ready to go, and the vehicle is ready to go, but not for a second do we expect that we are going to take off," Wiseman said at the astronauts' last virtual press conference before the launch. "We may go to the launch pad and have to try a few more times, and we are 100% prepared for that," he added.

Beginning of an era

Christina Koch said that the crew has "the strong hope that this mission will be the beginning of an era in which everyone, every person on Earth, can look at the Moon and think of it as a destination."

The mission represents "an important step towards Mars," where "there may be a greater probability of finding evidence of life," she said.

On launch day, the astronauts will wake up eight hours before liftoff, Glover said, adding that his last actions on Earth will be to pray and tell his family he loves them.

Hansen, in turn, shared that among the most exciting moments will be a total solar eclipse, in which they will see the Sun pass behind the Moon.

Suspended projects

The new NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced on 24 March the suspension of the Gateway project, a lunar orbital station, to focus on developing a surface base on the Moon.

"We have suspended the Gateway project as it was conceived and will focus on establishing the necessary infrastructure to ensure a sustainable presence on the lunar surface," he said in a speech at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., quoted by Agence France-Presse.

The ambitious plan to accelerate the return to the Moon by 2028, conduct crewed landings every six months, and build a permanent lunar base within the next seven years has been estimated at around $20 billion (€17.2 billion), according to the Spanish news agency EFE.

Partnership with Europe

The US agency has partnered with several international organisations for the project, including the European Space Agency (ESA), which is developing modules for the Gateway, and will count on contributions from private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.