March 30 (Reuters) - NASA's Artemis program is the U.S. effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era and eventually establish a sustained human presence there, a goal Washington has framed as central to maintaining space leadership amid growing competition from China.

Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch's mission is partly intended to pave the way for a future lunar landing in the coming years.

If the final countdown goes smoothly, the four-person Artemis II crew will blast off into the evening sky from Cape Canaveral at 6.24pm local time, in an Orion spacecraft on top of the giant Space Lau...