Artemis II astronauts arrive at Florida launch site for first moon trip in 53 years

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts set to become the first lunar visitors in more than half a century arrived at their launch site Friday, joining the towering rocket that stands poised to blast off next week and send them around the moon.

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman flew in with his three crewmates from Houston. It was the closest they've come to launching. Fuel leaks and other rocket issues caused two months of delay and double hangar-to-pad rollouts.

NASA's new administrator Jared Isaacman greeted the astronauts as they emerged from their T-38 training jets at Kennedy Space Center. Besides Wiseman, the crew includes NASA's Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. The welcoming committee also included the Canadian Space Agency's president, Lisa Campbell, dozens of NASA managers and more than 100 journalists.

“Hey, let's go to the moon!” Wiseman shouted to the crowd. “I think the nation and the world have been waiting a long time to do this again.”

“We're all fired up to go do this,” Hansen added. “So ‘Allons-y!’ " — French for let's go.

NASA is aiming for liftoff as soon as Wednesday. The space agency has the first six days of April to launch the Space Rocket System rocket before standing down for nearly a month.

Wiseman stressed there's no guarantee they will launch in early April as planned, and that it could slip to May or even June. The Space Launch System rocket has soared only once before; the crew-less test flight to the moon was back in 2022.

“That’s this business,” Glover said of all the delays. “It will go when the engines light at T-zero, and we totally understand that.”

The Orion capsule atop the rocket will carry the four on NASA's first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. The 10-day flight will end with a Pacific splashdown.

Earlier this week, Isaacman outlined a fresh plan for the moon base that NASA intends to build under the Artemis program. The upcoming moonshot will be followed in 2027 by a lunar lander demo in orbit around Earth and in 2028 by one and possibly two lunar landings by astronauts.

Koch said the changes are motivating and inspiring. “We're in a relay race ... and if nothing else this just fired us up for that all the more."

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