The Artemis 2 mission is due to send astronauts on a test mission to the moon and back during the "opening act" of a new age of discovery.

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Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. NASA is working to launch its Artemis II moon mission as soon as April 1, said Lori Glaze, one of the agency’s acting associate administrators, at a press conference on Thursday.

Follow along live as NASA aims to send astronauts into the moon's orbit with the launch of its key Artemis II mission on April 1.

On the eve of the first crewed flight of the Artemis program, NASA’s top leadership has zeroed in on a single, unforgiving piece of hardware: the Orion capsule’s heat shield. The final go or no-go review of that system is not just a technical milestone ...

This is NASA's first crewed mission around the Moon in over 50 years

Artemis II astronauts are racing back to Earth after a successful lunar flyby, with a high-risk re-entry still ahead. Travelling at over 30 times the speed of sound, the crew will face extreme heat before their scheduled Pacific Ocean splashdown near San Diego.

There were “ audible screams of delight ” at Mission Control in Houston, as mission science lead Kelsey Young recalled during a Tuesday press conference. “There was a little giddiness,” NASA astronaut and commander Reid Wiseman told Houston during the observation period.