NASA Starts Final Preparations for Artemis II Moon Mission Launch

NASA entered final preparations Friday for the launch Artemis II, its first astronaut mission to the moon since 1972. Liftoff is set for no earlier than April 1.

NBC News reports the half-century journey to this point, where four astronauts set out on a 10-day voyage around the moon, has been long, winding and bumpy, not to mention inordinately expensive.

“This rocket was originally supposed to launch in 2016 and cost $5 billion,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization that conducts research and advocacy to promote space exploration.

“It costs something like $20 billion now, 10 years after that.”

Combined, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft have cost more than $44 billion to develop.

The upcoming launch will be the first time they carry people and NASA announced the mission launch countdown is getting close.

Astronauts for the upcoming