NASA conducts wet dress rehearsal ahead of historic Moon mission

The historic crewed mission, which will fly astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, could launch as soon as Feb. 8.

A wet dress rehearsal is a live countdown simulation in which supercooled propellants are loaded into the rocket to test systems and procedures before launch.

Teams monitored all systems amid cold temperatures and high winds at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the rocket’s core stage was powered up ahead of loading more than 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA said Sunday: “Orion (the crew capsule for the mission) has remained powered over the last several days due to cold temperatures in Florida.”