Artemis II set to launch in early March

Nasa has announced that the earliest possible date for the Artemis II launch will now be 6 March - which will be 7 March in the UK.

The mission will see four astronauts take part in a 10-day fly around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth again.

It comes after a successful dress rehearsal - known as a wet rehearsal - for the rocket launch, took place on Thursday.

It was the Artemis team's second attempt at a practice run, after a hydrogen leak was detected at the launch pad earlier this month.

It's been 50 years since the US last sent astronauts to the Moon, and the United States is still the only country to do so. The mission is part of American space agency, Nasa's long-term plan to eventually have astronauts live on the lunar surface.

The US space agency had aimed to carry out the real launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in the US state of Florida, in early February.

However, during the first 'wet' rehearsal of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket launch - which took place at the beginning of the month - they discovered a fault a stopped the test.

Nasa halted the countdown a little over five minutes before the end of the rehearsal because of a hydrogen leak at the launch pad.

The US Space agency announced that the launch would need to be pushed back to March and that they would investigate the issues they encountered.

As a result, Nasa conducted a second wet rehearsal this week, and following its success, the space agency has now confirmed that the earliest date they will launch Artemis II is 6 March (US date) - which will be 7 March in the UK.