Nasa clears Artemis moon rocket for an April launch with 4 astronauts

Nasa cleared its moon rocket on Thursday for an April launch with four astronauts after completing the latest round of repairs.The 98-metre (322-foot) rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, leading to a launch attempt as early as April 1. It will mark humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than 50 years.The timing is interesting. From the end of March, US President Donald Trump is slated to visit China and meet with President Xi Jinping. The United States has been pressed to achieve success in its lunar programme before China sends its own crews to the lunar surface by around 2030.The Artemis II crew should have blasted off on a lunar fly-around earlier this year, but fuel leaks and other problems with the Space Launch System rocket interfered.Although Nasa managed to plug the hydrogen fuel leaks at the pad in February, a helium-flow issue forced the space agency to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, bumping the mission to April.The space agency has only six days at the beginning of April to launch before standing down until April 30 into early May.