Nell Greenfield Boyce

It's worth noting.

Oh, wow.

So NASA is doing this program in partnership with international partners like the Canadian Space Agency, but also the European Space Agency.

And so, you know, there's a lot of consensus that this is like a way of establishing a foothold beyond Earth.

And China wants to go to the moon, too.

And so, you know, some people are trying to drum up kind of another space race with China, similar to the space race, the 1960s.

But others are like, look, we already won the space race.

We'll always be first on the moon.

Well, it should be a fun mission, so I'll keep you guys posted.

Their trip out to the moon and back is expected to last about 10 days.

The crew's vehicle, a bell-shaped capsule, is currently perched on top of a massive rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA Test Director Jeff Spalding says launch preparations have been progressing smoothly.

The weather forecast says there's an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time.

If there's a weather delay or a technical glitch, there could still be several additional launch opportunities in the following days.

Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.

The four-person crew is in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center, where a 322-foot-tall rocket is being readied at the launch pad.

The crew includes a few firsts for a moon mission, the first person of color, the first woman, and the first non-American, a Canadian space agency astronaut named Jeremy Hansen.

At a press briefing, Hansen said their flight is actually a collaboration with lots of international partners.

Their space journey is expected to last about 10 days.

They'll test out their capsule systems close to Earth, and if all looks good, they'll go on a looping trip around the moon and back.