BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA is inching closer toward the launch of the Artemis mission, with the goal of getting the first woman and the next man on the moon.

Wednesday's booster stacking at Kennedy Space Center for the Artemis 1 mission is a next step towards that historic mission.

It's the uncrewed maiden flight that will travel behind the moon for a three-week journey.

"I can't tell you how great it is to actually see the hardware. Physically being around it, there's a lot to say about being around these 177-foot boosters," Vehicle Assembly Building Operations Chief Tony Dees said.

The core stage, with the main fuel tank and engines, will soon be on the way to the Kennedy Space Center, set to arrive in April.

Then, teams will test the vehicle through the spring and summer, saying launch is possible by the end of the year.

"We'll be looking sometime I'd gage between August, October, November where we'd be ready to go out for a wet dress rehearsal, where we'll actually take the vehicle out to the pad and actually tank it, then we'll come back and get ready for launch," Senior Vehicle Operations Manager Cliff Lanham said.

He said teams will work as efficiently as they can, and they're not going to launch until the vehicle is safe and ready to fly.

Artemis 1 will test spacecraft performance and Orion's heat shield during reentry, setting the stage for Artemis II, a 10-day crewed mission that plans to set the record for the farthest human travel from Earth by 2024.