After an overnight Thursday trip back out to the launch pad, NASA's Artemis II rocket will be readied for a historic flight to the moon.

Artemis II will send four astronauts on a nine-day trip around the moon. The next launch window opens on April 1.

NASA's SLS rocket rolled to Launch Complex 39B on March 19, advancing Artemis II toward April crewed lunar orbit flight – first since Apollo.

As NASA gears up for the launch of Artemis 2, the agency is revising its moon landing strategy, aiming to make future missions more achievable and sustainable.

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NASA is set to roll the Artemis II rocket to the launchpad Thursday night while the four astronauts assigned to the test flight around the moon have entered quarantine ahead of the planned April 1 liftoff.

With the launch of Artemis II planned in a few weeks, NASA is ready to monitor the sun during the mission in order to protect the astronauts while in space.

NASA has persisted with Artemis mostly to try to show — as flashier commercial entities zoom ahead — that the old space program can still deliver the goods.