NASA to send crew around the moon for first time in 50 years

The space agency is set to send four astronauts on the 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth.

The mission, named Artemis II, may pave the way for a future lunar landing and is set to launch on March 6.

Read more: Space rocket company enters administration

Read more: Ebay to buy Depop for £890m as it targets Gen Z shoppers

The date was set following the successful completion of a critical pre-launch test, known as the "wet dress rehearsal", where the rocket is filled with fuel and taken through the countdown sequence.

It was the Artemis team's second attempt at a practice run at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after their first rehearsal in February ended early.

"Every night I look up at the Moon and I see it and I get real excited because I can feel she's calling us and we're ready," NASA's Lori Glaze told a news conference on Friday.

"The excitement for Artemis II is really, really starting to build, we can really start to feel it. It's coming."

The team's first practice run was brought to a halt because of a hydrogen fuel leak at the launch pad.

Issues with the rocket's seals and filters have now been remedied, Glaze said.

"Yesterday we were able to fully tank the SLS rocket within the planned timeline […] we also successfully demonstrated the launch countdown," she said.

Three Americans - Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch - and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen, make up the Artemis II crew.

The crew is now set to go into quarantine, before they begin their journey on Nasa's mega Moon rocket, the 98m-tall (322ft) Space Launch System, or SLS.

It has only been flown once before for the Artemis I mission in November 2022, but this was with no people onboard.

They will be seated at the top of the rocket in the Orion capsule, which is the size of a minibus and will be their home for the entirety of the 10-day mission.

The first day of their journey will be spent in orbit around the Earth and, if all systems are working well, the astronauts will head towards the Moon.

This part of the voyage will take about four days, where they will travel around the far side of the Moon, the side we never see from Earth.

They will fly by at a distance of 6,500-9,500km (4,000 to 6,000 miles) above the lunar surface, and will have several hours dedicated to studying and taking images of the Moon.

A four-day journey home will then follow, finishing with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

If the mission is successful, it will pave the way for Artemis III, which will see astronauts set foot on the lunar surface.

The last time humans visited the Moon was in 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission.

NASA says the landing will happen by 2028, but this is a very ambitious timescale.