NASA's long-awaited moonshot with astronauts is off until at least March because of hydrogen fuel leaks that marred the dress rehearsal of its giant new rocket. It's the same problem that delayed the Space Launch System rocket's debut three years ago.

NASA is targeting March for the launch of four astronauts on a ten-day mission to circle the moon and return safely to Earth, traveling farther than any humans have ventured in deep space.

As NASA prepares to send astronauts around the moon, a critical dress rehearsal on Monday will reveal whether its rocket is truly ready to fly.

NASA says it can't try until March at the earliest to send a crewed spacecraft on a flight around the moon and back, due to hydrogen leaks during testing of the Artemis II rocket.

The Artemis program, effectively a successor to the Apollo missions, aims to return Americans to the moon and lay the groundwork for future missions to Mars. It kicked off in 2022 with the uncrewed Artemis I mission, which marked the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion. Artemis II will be their first with crew.