Years of delays, billions over budget: How NASA’s Artemis II became a make-or-break moon shot

NASA's Artemis return-to-the-moon program is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Could a successful mission quiet its critics?

The 322-foot-tall rocket stands ready on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Fueling tests are done. The four astronauts it will send on a journey around the moon are waiting in quarantine.

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NASA is making final preparations for its Artemis II mission, which could launch as early as Wednesday — a feat more than a decade and tens of billions of dollars in the making. When the astronauts finally lift off, they will be the first to launch toward the moon in more than 50 years, and they could venture farther from Earth than humanity ever has before.

But the road to this point has been long, winding and bumpy, not to mention inordinately expensive.