NASA's Artemis II L-1 countdown status news conference

~29 hours until launch, the first crewed launch to circle the moon in over 50 years.

The last person to step foot on the moon was Gene Cernan, the commander of NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Cernan, the last of 12 humans to walk on the moon, left humanity's final bootprint on the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.

And while Artemis II does mark NASA's return to the moon, the mission more closely takes after the Dec. 21, 1968's Apollo 8 mission, which sent three NASA astronauts on a six-day trip around the moon. Much like Artemis II, Apollo 8 was a key step in testing flight systems and trajectories before attempting a lunar landing.

Here's everything you need to know about the Artemis II mission so far:

• NASA is targeting a two-hour launch window that opens at 6.24 p.m. ET on Wednesday (April 1).
• The space agency has said there's an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions to launch Artemis II on Wednesday.
• The April launch windows for Artemis II run from Wednesday through to Monday (April 4 to 9), with the potential for a launch on any of those days. After Monday, the next launch window is April 30.
• This will be NASA's last chance to launch the rocket on time, as the mission is meant to lift off no later than April 30.

via livescience