Nasa plans first crewed Moon mission in 50 years for February

Nasa has said it hopes to send astronauts on a trip around the Moon as soon as February to prepare for landing there as early as 2027.

The US space agency had previously committed to launching no later than the end of April but said it aims to bring the mission forward.

It's been 50 years since any country has flown a crewed lunar mission. Nasa will send four astronauts there and back in ten days to test systems.

The Artemis II mission is the second launch of the Artemis programme, whose aim is to land astronauts and eventually establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface.

The Artemis II launch will see four astronauts go on a ten-day round trip to the Moon and back to the Earth. The astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, of Nasa and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, will not land on the Moon, though they will be the first crew to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The aim of the mission is to test the rocket and spacecraft's systems to lay the ground for a lunar landing.

The astronauts will enter the Orion capsule, which will be their home for the duration of their journey. It sits on top of the most powerful rocket ever built, known as the Space Launch System (SLS).

This will be carried initially into Earth orbit with the help of two solid rocket boosters, which will fall back to Earth two minutes after launch once they have done the heavy lifting.