NASA targeting March 6 to launch astronauts, including Canada's Jeremy Hansen, to the moon

NASA is ready to go to the moon. 

The space agency conducted a successful rehearsal of launch events for the upcoming Artemis II moon mission that will include Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover. 

The rehearsal reached its goal of counting down to just past T-minus 30 seconds twice, meaning the rocket would have launched in less than a minute on launch day.

"Overall, the countdown went very, very smoothly. We do have work to do to get our systems ready for launch," Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said at a media conference Friday morning.

"One thing I do want to say here today is that, following that successful wet dress yesterday, we're now targeting March 6 as our earliest launch attempt."

However, she did warn that there's still a lot of work to do. In the meantime, the four astronauts will go into a two-week quarantine beginning later Friday. There will also be a flight readiness review at the end of the month.

There have been issues in the past with the rocket rehearsal, particularly when it comes to fuel leaks.

The first attempt at an Artemis II wet dress rehearsal — an almost three-day-long run-through of launch procedures that includes a countdown as well as loading the rocket with fuel — began on Jan. 31 and ended on Feb. 3, but ran into a familiar problem: a hydrogen leak during fuelling.

A similar issue arose with the Artemis I mission.

While Thursday's rehearsal had some hiccups, specifically an issue with ground communication, NASA appeared to clear the one hurdle that has held them back: loading the core stage of the rocket with hydrogen.

Both the core stage of the rocket — the massive orange tank — and the second stage of the rocket are loaded with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The process is staggered, starting with a slow fill followed by a fast fill.

In past attempts, a hydrogen leak above the acceptable threshold was detected, pausing the tanking process. Eventually, it had to be stopped altogether.

Hydrogen is prone to leaking because it's the smallest molecule in the universe. But it's also an extremely efficient rocket propellant.

During Thursday's wet dress rehearsal, it appeared that there was no leak that surpassed that threshold.