NASA's Artemis II launch this Wednesday at 6:24 PM EDT is currently at 80% GO from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

NASA aims to launch four astronauts on humanity's first crewed Moon voyage in more than half a century...a 10-day flight around the moon and back that will mark the second mission of Artemis, successor to the Apollo program of the Cold War era.

Unlike a landing mission, Artemis II is a critical test flight—designed to prove that life-support systems, navigation, communication, and heat shield technology all work in deep space with humans onboard.

The mission will push astronauts farther from Earth than ever before, using a “free-return trajectory” that naturally brings them home.

- Matt Devitt Weather