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Artemis II, the first crewed mission under the Artemis program<\/a>, is scheduled<\/a> to launch today, April 1. NASA is opening a two-hour window for its lift off, starting at 6:24 PM Eastern time, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency said the forecast for launch day \u201cshows an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions\u201d and that, on March 31, its engineers had finished critical health checks on the Space Launch System rocket that the mission will use.<\/p>\n On the evening of March 31, the engineers shifted the launch system into its final configuration. In the early hours of April 1, they will activate the ground launch sequencer. You can start watching Artemis II\u2019s launch event at 7:45AM ET when the Artemis team will load propellant into the SLS rocket. Full launch coverage begins at 12:50 PM ET on NASA+, Amazon Prime or the YouTube video embedded below.<\/p>\n The Artemis II mission will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day trip around the moon. It will be NASA\u2019s first flight with a crew onboard the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft system, and it will be humanity\u2019s first foray into deep space since the Apollo program. During their 10-day mission, the astronauts will observe how journeys beyond Earth\u2019s orbit affect human health. Artemis II was supposed to launch in February, but the attempt had failed due to a hydrogen leak<\/a>. Another attempt in March was delayed yet again due a helium issue<\/a>. If the launch doesn\u2019t take place today as planned, NASA\u2019s next launch opportunity is on April 6.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n