NASA gears up for one more key test before launching Artemis II to the Moon

The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission stand atop Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

If all goes according to plan Monday, NASA’s launch team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will load 755,000 gallons of super-cold propellants into the rocket built to send the Artemis II mission toward the Moon.

The fuel loading is part of a simulated countdown for the Space Launch System rocket, a final opportunity for engineers to rehearse for the day NASA will send four astronauts on a nearly 10-day voyage around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. The Artemis II mission will send humans farther from Earth than ever before. The astronauts will be the first to launch on NASA’s SLS rocket and the first people to travel to the vicinity ...