NASA officials begin loading fuel to Artemis II rocket

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. (NBC, KYMA) - NASA officials have begun loading fuel onto the Artemis II rocket for Wednesday's planned launch.

The so-called tanking process began early Wednesday morning as the launch team performed a chilldown procedure necessary to fill the space launch system rocket with more than 730,000 gallons of super-cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

During the process, they will closely watch the rocket looking for any leaks that could force a countdown delay.

The Artemis II is scheduled to lift off at 6:24 p.m. Eastern

The rocket will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust during liftoff, and the mission will carry four astronauts around the moon and back as part of a 10-day mission.

This is a necessary step toward returning astronauts back to the lunar surface, and this will also be the first lunar launch since 1972.

To watch the livestream of the launch, see attached video.