NASA has at least another 8 miles of terrestrial travel to accomplish before it can take on a 600,000-mile trip to space.

As teams prepare to launch Artemis II, a ten-day flight around the Moon with astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—NASA Administrator Jared Isaac...

But the additional mission gives NASA more practice launching its rocket and allows the agency and its partners to collect additional data as they finalize moon-landing hardware.