NASA’s historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission has hit a snag, pushing its launch timeline to no earlier than April. On Wednesday, NASA had to roll its massive Space Launch System rocket, weighing 11 million pounds, back to its hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to repair an issue that would affect the proper flow of fuel into the rocket’s engines.Engineers discovered the issue with the 322-foot-tall rocket less than 24 hours after a successful wet dress rehearsal, which is an hourlong test that involves fully loading the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant and running through a simulated launch countdown.Here’s what to know about the Artemis program and mission:What is the Artemis program’s mission?The Artemis program is NASA’s long-term mission to return humans to the moon to establish a continuous human presence. The goal is to develop a lunar settlement on the south pole, a region where it’s believed water ice is abundant and could be used for drinking, breathing and as a source for rocket fuel.AdvertisementAdvertisementArtemis’ long-term mission is to also lay the foundation for future crewed missions to Mars. The program is building on the legacy of the Apollo-era missions to the moon in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The Artemis program is aptly named after the ancient Greek goddess of the moon, twin sister of Apollo.The program consists of a series of missions that started with Artemis I. The integrated flight test was successfully completed in November 2022, involving NASA’s deep space exploration systems. Those include the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and upgraded systems at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.What is the goal of the Artemis II mission?“Artemis II builds on the success …
