STORY: "Victor, Christina, Jeremy, we're going to the moon."
:: NASA
NASA is preparing to launch its first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 50 years.
The second Artemis mission will take humans deeper into space than ever before in a lunar flyby.
It comes as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space, while facing growing competition from China.
Three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as soon as Wednesday (April 01).
While swinging around the moon, Artemis II won't attempt a landing.
NASA's Lori Glaze says the 10-day test mission will firstly test how the astronauts fare a record-breaking distance from home.
:: NASA
"We have several, what we call, human health and performance experiments. We're going to test how they live and work inside the Orion capsule during this time. We're going to measure radiation..."
And if all goes well, Orion will embark upon an ambitious lunar quest.
"It's a special trajectory that when we go out to the moon, the moon's gravity is going to pull us and have us go around the moon and then it'll sling us back towards Earth."
Humans haven't touched down on the moon's surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.
It's a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the lunar south pole.
:: NASA
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
The U.S. has a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade.
It aims to set the precedent for how other countries will operate and coexist on the moon's surface.
Which is viewed by some as a stage of national power, where countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much harder missions to Mars.
