On Wednesday, for the first time since 1972, NASA is attempting to launch astronauts to the moon.

The space agency is targeting a 3:24 p.m. Pacific time launch of the colossal Space Launch System rocket with four astronauts aboard. Once off the ground, the crew — including Southern California native Victor Glover — will fly past the moon (but not land on the lunar surface or enter its orbit) and splash down off the coast of San Diego in roughly 10 days.

How to watch

NASA has already begun around-the-clock coverage of the entire mission — including launch preparations, liftoff, the lunar flyby and splashdown — on its YouTube page.

NASA is also livestreaming major milestones, including the launch, on its X account, Facebook page, Twitch profile and website.

If cable television is more your speed, C-SPAN is covering the launch (featuring its famous viewer calls).

Backup dates

The launch is ultimately dependent on the weather. The forecast shows an 80% chance of favorable weather for launch, with some potential for clouds and high winds at ground level that could delay the mission. Wednesday’s launch opportunity is open for two hours, until 5:24 p.m.

If weather or minor technical concerns prevent launch Wednesday, NASA has additional two-hour launch windows every evening through April 6. After that, it would have to wait until at least April 30.

The historical significance

Artemis II is the first mission since Apollo 17 in 1972 to carry humans to the moon. The capsule will carry the first Black person, first woman and first non-American to travel around the moon — potentially traveling farther and reentering the Earth’s atmosphere faster than any other human mission in history.

Although the astronauts will not land on the moon, Artemis II mimics early Apollo missions that were designed as a stepping stone to test all of the equipment and procedures before making the daring landing.

A springboard to Mars

The Artemis program ultimately aims to land humans back on the moon, help the space agency establish a lunar base and serve as the testing grounds for future missions to Mars.

NASA plans to launch Artemis III, a mission in Earth’s orbit to test docking the NASA spacecraft with SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s lunar landers, in 2027. It aspires to launch Artemis IV, which would put humans on the surface of the moon, in 2028.

By Kenneth Chang, Marco Hernandez, Melanie Bencosme, Jon Miller, Gabriel Blanco, Joey Sendaydiego and Luke Piotrowski

April 1, 2026

In an earlier era, the American Heart Assn. and the U.S. federal government were very closely aligned on what the American public should eat and why.

Dietary guidelines from the cardiovascular research nonprofit largely mirrored those published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. American Heart Assn. representatives advised the government on the science behind its dietary advice.

But as is the case with many public health issues these days, the distance between the policies recommended by established medical groups and those endorsed by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to be growing wider.

On Tuesday, American Heart Assn. released its updated guidelines for a heart-healthy diet. Like the new federal dietary guidelines released back in January, the document cautions against processed foods and refined sugars.

But the group pressed back on some nutrition claims that Kennedy and Make America Healthy Again influencers have touted in public statements and written into federal policy.

Unlike the new federally authorized inverted food pyramid, which gives top billing to an enormous cut of steak, a tray of ground meat, a hunk of cheese and carton of whole milk, the American Heart Assn. urges plant-based proteins over red meat, and low- or nonfat dairy products over whole-fat options.

In contrast to Kennedy’s declaration in January that the U.S. was “ending the war on saturated fat,” the heart association continues to recommend unsaturated fat sources over saturated ones for the sake of cardiovascular health.

The heart association also pushes back on Kennedy’s well-publicized passion for beef tallow as a replacement for seed oils, which he has accused (despite shaky evidence) of “poisoning” Americans.

“Animal fats (eg, beef tallow and butter) and tropical oils (eg, coconut oil, cocoa butter, and palm oil) are relatively high in saturated fat, whereas nontropical plant oils (eg, soybean, canola, and olive oils) are relatively high in unsaturated fat,” the American Heart Assn. paper reads. “In summary, as part of heart-healthy dietary patterns, nontropical plant sources of fat should be used as part of food preparation in place of animal fats and tropical oils.”

In response to questions, both the American Heart Assn. and Department of Health and Human Services emphasized their shared objectives over any differences.

“The American Heart Association’s [paper] is aligned with the Dietary Guidelines on the major issues: eat real food, avoid highly processed food, and limit refined grains and added sugar,” said Andrew Nixon, a health department spokesman. “We look forward to working collaboratively with the [American Heart Assn.] to evangelize these core principles and reverse the diet-related chronic disease epidemic.”

The heart association and the federal government have different purposes when drafting their recommendations, said Dr. Simin Liu, director of UC Irvine’s Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health & Nutrition and a professor at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

The heart association’s guidelines are intended to reflect the best available evidence on nutrition and cardiovascular health outcomes, whereas federal nutrition standards inform the content of federally funded meals served in schools, hospitals and military dining facilities, and help determine foods included under assistance plans like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The two sets of guidelines aren’t totally at odds. The heart association applauded the government’s warnings against added sugars, refined grains and processed foods in January, noting that the advice aligns with the organization’s long-standing recommendations.

“Those of us in the field have been pushing for food-based dietary recommendations, like advocating people eat actual foods instead of [processed] food products,” Liu said, but “the focus on animal product consumption is a bit off the mark.”

The administration’s hearty endorsement of animal protein sources surprised many health groups, as a diet rich in red meat is strongly associated with poorer cardiovascular health.

A supplemental report published alongside the federal guidelines noted that several members of the government’s advisory panel had financial ties to meat and dairy industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn., the National Pork Board and the California Dairy Research Foundation.

The heart association’s guidelines better reflect the current scientific consensus on the relationship between food and cardiovascular health, said a spokesperson for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, and “will be a valuable resource for anyone who was confused by the mixed messages” in the government’s earlier advice.