ISTANBUL

Four astronauts preparing for a mission around the Moon early next year, took part in a full dress-rehearsal countdown this weekend, strapping into NASA’s Orion spacecraft in a key step toward the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than five decades.

Originally planned for late November, the complex test experienced several holds and resumptions on Saturday, according to NASA’s countdown clock. The space agency did not elaborate on the issues encountered, but Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman said the rehearsal was overall successful.

Artemis 2 will mark the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, sending Wiseman and his crewmates farther from Earth than any humans have gone before. The flight will pave the way for Artemis 3, which NASA hopes will land astronauts near the Moon’s south pole in 2028.

Wiseman described the test as an “Extremely successful day in our spacecraft #Integrity,” in a post on US social media company X. “Did everything go perfectly? Absolutely not,” said Wiseman, adding that the team showed they were “up to the challenge,” and that the launch “is getting very close.”

The mission is tentatively scheduled for early February, although the tight timeline could push the launch to early March. A final decision is not expected until after the start of the new year, ABC News reported.

During the test, Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen donned orange pressure suits and strapped into Orion using launch-day procedures, boarding the spacecraft atop NASA’s SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

After launch, Orion and its crew will spend about 25 hours in an elliptical Earth orbit to test life support, propulsion and navigation systems. Unlike the uncrewed Artemis 1 flight in November 2022, which lacked a full life-support system, Artemis 2 will then head onto a “free return” trajectory around the Moon before splashing down in the Pacific, without entering lunar orbit.