AFP file photo: NASA logo displayed at the headquarters of NASA in Washington DC
Washington: NASA on Friday set March 6 as the earliest possible launch date for Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.
Lori Glaze, a senior official with the US space agency, cautioned that more pad work and a dress rehearsal remained in order to meet that date.
"We need to successfully navigate all of those but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6," Glaze said.
NASA rehearsed the launch of its massive SLS rocket on Thursday.
Technical problems in early February cut short an earlier so-called wet dress rehearsal of the launch of the Artemis 2 mission.
But on Thursday, the US space agency reported that things proceeded as planned, concluding at "T-29 seconds" in the countdown.
The wet dress rehearsal is conducted under real conditions, with full rocket tanks and technical checks, at Cape Canaveral in Florida, with engineers practicing the maneuvers needed to carry out an actual launch.
The setback in February, which included a liquid hydrogen leak, dashed hopes of a lift-off this month.
Three American astronauts and one Canadian make up the Artemis 2 crew.
