NASA is aiming to send a crew around the moon in the first mission in over 50 years.

The Artemis II mission will involve four astronauts travelling on a 10-day trip around the back side of the moon and back to Earth, thus opening the pathway to further travel to the moon.

The first successful launch date of March 6 (nothing before March 7 in the UK) was established after a successful “wet dress rehearsal” – one of the most important pre-launch procedures, during which the rocket was fueled and subjected to a countdown simulation.

This was the second of many practice runs of the Artemis team at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

NASA space pilot Lori Glaze described her experience of looking up at the Moon every night and seeing it, and being very excited because she felt like she could hear her calling us, and “we were ready.”

“The anticipation of Artemis II is actually, actually beginning to heat up; we can actually feel it. It’s coming.”

The initial rehearsal that was conducted at the start of February was cut short due to a leak of hydrogen fuel at the launch pad.

Glaze added that problems with seals and filters were also fixed.

“Yesterday we could tank an SLS rocket full upon the scheduled timeline,” she said. “We also got the countdown for launching effectively.”

The crew of the Artemis II consists of three Americans, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

After a successful rehearsal, Glaze reported that the crew were excited and they would go into quarantine later on Friday.

They will start their voyage on the mega Moon rocket of NASA: the 98m (322ft) Space Launch System or SLS.

This was only flown once previously in November 2022 with the Artemis I mission, although no people were aboard.

The crew will be fastened to the Orion capsule, which will be at the top of the rocket.

Their spacecraft is approximately the size of a mini bus, and that is where the four will live, eat, work and sleep in the 10-day mission.

On the initial day of their trip, they will spend their time orbiting the earth, after which, assuming that everything is going well, the astronauts will be heading to the moon.

The trip will take a matter of four days, and the crew will travel around the back side of the Moon, which is the one we do not see on Earth.

They will be located between 6,500 and 9,500km (4,000 to 6,000 miles) over the moon, and will even have hours of time available to them to study and take photos of the moon. The crew will be on a fly-by that will take them further away than any other person has ever been before.

Once this is done, the astronauts will initiate a four-day trip home. They will complete the mission with a splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.

An eventual successful mission will be the precursor of Artemis III, which will see astronauts walk on the surface of the moon.

It was in 1972 with Apollo 17 that the last human visit to the Moon was recorded.

NASA estimates the landing to be completed by 2028, which is a very high target.

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has been contracted to construct the lander of Artemis III, which will be transported to the Moon using a SpaceX Starship rocket. Delay of the Starship rocket has, however, made NASA request SpaceX to provide an alternative streamlined version that can accelerate a visit to the Moon.

NASA also requested other rival companies, such as Blue Origin, the company owned by Jeff Bezos, to develop a faster plan to go to the moon with Artemis III.

The US is pressured to go back to the moon as the tech billionaires fight it out. By 2030, China hopes to have landed on the Moon, and it has been working gradually towards that goal.

The two countries intend to land on the south pole of the moon – and are even competing over the best positions to erect their lunar settlements.