The countdown for the beginning of the Artemis 2 mission is now on, NASA has announced. Taking part in a high-profile press conference two days before the earliest possible date the launch may happen, the Artemis 2 launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, said on Monday: "I am thrilled to say that our countdown clock picked up just a little bit ago and began counting at 4.44pm."

She added: "Our team has worked extremely hard to get us to this moment and I am so very proud of the work that they have done." Just minutes earlier, NASA's associate administrator Amit Kshatriya provided a major update, indicating the historic moon mission may take place on April 1. He said: "The team concluded that everything continues to look good and that there are no issues preventing us from pressing ahead at this point."

Also giving a positive update was Amit Kshatriya, NASA's associate administrator, who said that "everything continues to look good" as the highly anticipated mission enters its pre-launch phase".

He added "there are no issues preventing us from pressing ahead at this point" with the team being "in a strong posture and the mission remains on track".

He also thanked all NASA employees, saying: "You are all instrumental. The skills that you carry, the judgement you built, the knowledge you hold, these are all the things that are in the lifeblood of the agency.

"This mission is going to fly on Wednesday because you are here."

The mission marks the first time in over five decades that astronauts will travel around the Moon. It will take four astronauts - NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency - on a 10-day flight around the moon.

They will become the first people to blast into space on the giant new SLS rocket and fly in the Orion capsule.

While the mission is mainly a test mission, the crew will conduct some observations of the Moon and deep-space environment, paving the way for Artemis 3, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon's surface.

NASA will livestream prelaunch events, the launch itself, and major mission moments on its official channels and website, with coverage often starting well before liftoff.