NASA crews are once again preparing to launch the new SLS Moon Rocket after a false start earlier this week.
The uncrewed, 32-storey-tall rocket will attempt to take off on Sunday (NZ time), a week after a pair of technical issues foiled NASA's initial attempt at getting the spacecraft off the ground for the first time.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who has spent time at the International Space Station, told AM all eyes were on this weekend's launch.
"Since Monday, since we had that scrub, the engineers and ground teams have been hard at work analysing the problems and resolving them… we should be in a good posture for Saturday," she told host Ryan Bridge.
"Hopefully, the weather will also play in our favour."
But prospects for success on Sunday appeared clouded by weather reports predicting just a 40 percent chance of favourable conditions that day.
"If it doesn't happen Saturday, we have another launch attempt on Monday and if not then, about two weeks later we'll try again," Meir said.
"We will go when we're ready, that's the most important thing. We need to get this one right because the next one will carry passengers on it."
She said Monday's abandoned launch was useful in troubleshooting some of the problems with the rocket.
"What happened on Monday, there were a couple of things; there was a hydrogen leak that we were tracking and then there was also a problem with the thermal conditioning of the engines.
"It doesn't worry us because that is part of the process. It's how we do things at NASA - it's incremental and we test and we iterate, and we learn along the way.
"That's why we're doing this mission - this Artemis I flight is a test flight to test out all the capacity of the space launch system rocket and the Orion capsule. It is the necessary last step before we can put humans onboard."
If all goes as hoped, the SLS will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 6:17am on Sunday morning (NZ time), sending the Orion on an uncrewed, six-week test flight around the moon and back.
The long-awaited voyage would kick off NASA's moon-to-Mars Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo lunar project of the 1960s and '70s before US human spaceflight efforts shifted to low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station.
Meir told AM she'd do anything to experience the feeling of going into space again.
"We don't know yet who the crew will be - we won't assign that crew until after this mission comes back successfully so we'll assign the crew for the Artemis II mission about two years in advance.
"If this one goes well - we would hopefully be assigning those names before the end of the year, so it could be me but it could be one of my friends and colleagues.
"I've accomplished the dream of going to space - of doing a space walk even - and this would really just be the icing on the cake. But it's not about personal achievement - it's really about representing humanity."
The last humans to walk on the moon were the two-man descent team of Apollo 17 in 1972, following in the footsteps of 10 other astronauts during five earlier missions beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969.
Watch the video for the full interview.
