“A little more than an hour before sunset on Florida’s space coast, up to 400,000 people packed on beaches and causeways will look to the heavens on Wednesday to witness a fiery spectacle not seen in almost 54 years: a fully crewed Nasa rocket heading back to the moon.”

“The launch of Artemis II, scheduled for 6.24pm ET if weather and any late technical gremlins grant their consent, marks the first time since the Apollo 17 mission of December 1972 that humans will have left lower Earth orbit.”

“Two of the crew, Nasa’s Christina Koch and Victor Glover, will become respectively the first woman and first person of color to fly into cislunar space, the area between Earth’s orbit and the moon.”

“The fourth crew member, the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, will become the first non-American to do the same.”

“Collectively, Artemis II’s Orion space capsule could fly them farther from Earth than any human being before them. A Wednesday launch would probably see them reach more than 4,600 miles (7,400km) beyond the far side of the moon on flight day six, and just short of 253,000 miles from home, breaking the April 1970 record of 248,655 miles set by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.”

“Before Donald Trump’s return to office, Nasa celebrated the diversity of Artemis crews on its website, but dropped the recognition last year – keeping with the president’s executive order that directed federal agencies to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices and language.”

“The long journey also gives the astronauts time to test crucial hardware and life-support systems that will be needed for the program’s future flights, including Artemis IV, the historic crewed mission scheduled for 2028 that will finally place human footprints back on the lunar surface.”

“The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule stack stand at 322ft (98m) on the launchpad, and will split into stages at various points of its ascent.”

“Nasa is confident it has solved the heat-shield issue that led to a nervy re-entry for Artemis I, and a helium leak that forced Artemis II back to its assembly building in February, and led to Nasa postponing the next launch attempt to April.”

“Nasa’s final weather briefing on Tuesday gave the launch an 80% chance of favorable conditions, and in the event of a scrubbed launch, Nasa has a window to try again on each of the following five nights.”