Artemis II launch countdown begins as NASA takes historic step towards returning to the moon TONIGHT: Live updates

Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have boarded the Orion spacecraft and are hours away from rocketing into space on the Artemis II mission.

The 32-story Space Launch System rocket is set to blast off this evening with a two-hour launch window beginning at 6.24pm ET.

They will hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon, hang a U-turn and then come straight back over a 10-day period.

An adorable moon plushie called Rise, designed by Lucas Ye, an 8-year-old from California, will join the four astronauts heading to space today.

Rise will serve as the crew’s zero-gravity indicator, providing a visual indication when they are in space.

The plushie was inspired by the iconic Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission, according to NASA.

NASA has revealed what food will be sent on the 10–day trip around the moon.

The four crew members have been able to individually tailor their meals to what they like to eat.

More than 10 types of beverages will go with them on the 685,000-mile trip, including mango–peach smoothies, lemonade, apple cider and hot chocolate, as well as enough coffee for 43 cups.

For breakfast, the team will be able to tuck into sausages, granola with blueberries or a tropical fruit salad.

Meanwhile, lunch and dinner items include vegetable quiche, BBQ beef brisket, spicy green beans, broccoli au gratin and macaroni and cheese – alongside the 58 tortillas that will also be loaded for the journey.

Anyone who wants to add a bit of spice to their meal can access five different hot sauces during their mission.

And last but not least, the crew will also be able to chow down on cookies, chocolate, cake and puddings to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett appeared to reignite the decades-old conspiracy theory that the original moon landings were a hoax, just hours before the launch of Artemis II.

With one word, Burchett seemed to call into question whether NASA astronauts had previously orbited and walked on the lunar surface in the 1970s.

‘Back?’ Burchett posted on X, replying to another person’s comment calling the Artemis II journey to the moon ‘historic.’

The moon landing hoax conspiracy theory is the idea that NASA and the US government never really sent astronauts to the moon. Instead, believers say the Apollo missions, including the famous 1969 Apollo 11 landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were completely staged on Earth in a secret film studio.

NASA has pushed back on this conspiracy, including releasing a press release titled ‘Apollo: Yes, We Did’ in 2001.

The Artemis II mission will be the first mission to leave low-Earth orbit and set course for the moon since 1972.

The White House shared a video promoting the Artemis II launch.

‘TODAY. ARTEMIS II. AROUND THE MOON FOR ALL HUMANITY,’ the White House wrote on X.

The threat of a solar flare interfering with the historic Artemis II moon mission is being monitored by NASA, which warned that extreme radiation could postpone the launch.

NASA’s weather officer, Mark Burger, revealed on Tuesday that the sun has been unusually active lately in recent months, causing more moderate and strong flares to erupt without warning.

A solar flare is a sudden, powerful burst of radiation and light expelled from the sun’s surface. These flares often come with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are huge clouds of charged particles that blast out into space at high speeds.

The Artemis II crew has revealed the personal items they will carry with them as they circle the moon.

Mission pilot Victor Glover, a devoted Christian and longtime Sunday school teacher, is bringing his Bible.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will carry four moon-shaped pendants, keepsakes he once gave to his wife and children before collecting them back so they could travel with him into deep space.

Commander Reid Wiseman is keeping his choice simple, packing only notepaper and a pencil so he can record his thoughts as he gazes out at Earth and the moon. He is also bringing letters from his two daughters.

Mission specialist Christina Koch will carry handwritten messages from loved ones, saying the notes, touched and written by her family, will hold special meaning as she travels farther from home than she ever has before.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut, told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center today that he is jealous of the Artemis II crew.

‘You know, I texted Reid and Victor yesterday, wishing them well, telling them if they need somebody to step in at the last moment, I’m ready,’ Kelly said.

‘I’m a little jealous, I have to say.’

Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be on board Artemis II.

Wiseman, 50, is a retired Navy captain from Baltimore, Maryland, and will serve as the Artemis II commander.

Glover, 49, is one of NASA’s few black astronauts, a Navy captain, and a former combat pilot from Pomona, California.

Koch is a 47-year-old electrical engineer from Jacksonville, North Carolina. She holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman – 328 days – and took part in the first all-female spacewalk during her lengthy stay at the space station in 2019.

Hansen, 50, is an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency and will be making his first spaceflight.

He will be serving as his country’s first emissary to the moon and is also a fighter pilot and physicist.

Pictured: Hansen, Glover, Wiseman and Koch

The astronauts are sealed inside the Orion capsule, entering the final stage before humanity’s first trip toward the moon in more than half a century.

After reaching the launch pad, the crew took an elevator high above the ground and signed their names inside the historic ‘white room,’ the last stop before boarding the spacecraft.

With helmets locked and suits adjusted, they climbed into the tight capsule, roughly the size of a small camper van, where they could remain for 10 days if the mission launches on schedule.