Just a few hours remain in the countdown for Artemis II, NASA's mission to return astronauts to lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo era, Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

• The agency's new Moon hopes and dreams are sitting on pad 39B at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, in the form of a 322-foot-tall rocket set to launch four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of Earth's nearest celestial companion.

👨🏿‍🚀 The mission — a "dress rehearsal" for a lunar landing, like Apollo 8 and 10, decades ago — will set several space milestones.

• NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch will become the first person of color and woman, respectively, to travel beyond low Earth orbit.
• Canada's Jeremy Hansen will become the first non-American to voyage beyond that mark.

⏱️ The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.

• If needed, the next window opens tomorrow at 7:22 p.m. ET.

🔧 The Artemis II "stack" — that's the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket plus the Orion spacecraft — had to be rolled back into its hangar in late February to fix technical issues.

• The SLS is a NASA-led Boeing/Northrop Grumman/United Launch Alliance/Aerojet Rocketdyne endeavor. Orion is a Lockheed Martin/Airbus Defense and Space effort.

🌖 NASA once planned a Moon landing with Artemis III, but recently rejiggered its schedule.

• Artemis III will now involve testing one or both of SpaceX and Blue Origin's lunar lander vehicles in low Earth orbit. A Moon landing is targeted for Artemis IV in 2028.

🏗️ NASA eventually hopes to return to the Moon annually, if not more often, with the ambitious goal of building a lunar base.

• But first: A quick visit to check out the cosmic neighborhood before getting into the real estate market.

Go deeper ... Watch live.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon defended the Iran war, dismissed the idea of running for office and pointed at plans for his post-CEO future in a new episode of "The Axios Show."

🏦 The head of the country's biggest bank was reluctant to criticize President Trump across several issues.

• On the Iran war, Dimon dismissed the criticism that there was no imminent threat facing the U.S.
• He told Axios CEO Jim VandeHei: "They've been killing people around the world for 45-plus years. They've killed a lot of Americans. They've funded Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis ... they have terrorist cells here."

🙅 Asked for his single biggest disappointment about Trump, Dimon said: "I don't want to say here."

• He did indicate he's considered some Trump moves heavy-handed: "I just think sometimes he raises some wonderful issues — things that universities should have been doing a better job at. But I'm not in favor of taking away all their R&D."

Go deeper ... Subscribe on YouTube.

1. 🧑‍⚖️ President Trump attended Supreme Court oral arguments today over his executive order restricting birthright citizenship — the first time a sitting president has done so. Go deeper.
2. 🚀 SpaceX has confidentially filed to go public, Axios' Dan Primack reports. It could be the biggest IPO ever, with the company looking to raise around $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation. Go deeper.
3. 🍎 It's Apple's 50th birthday, marking Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak signing partnership documents on April Fool's Day 1976. CEO Tim Cook, posting on X: "Thank you to our teams, our users, and everyone who's been part of the journey." Highlight reel.

You've heard of jogging. You've heard of picking up litter. Combine the two and you get "plogging," Axios Kansas City's Travis Meier reports.

🇸🇪 The term comes from the Swedish phrase "plocka upp," meaning "to pick up."

• That got combined with the word "jogging" for a fun portmanteau.

Let's go plogging ... Get Axios Local.