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.
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 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.
