NASA moon rocket on track for launch despite lightning hits

The NASA Artemis rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. [AP Photo]

NASA's new moon rocket remained on track to blast off on a crucial test flight Monday, despite a series of lightning strikes at the launch pad.

The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is the most powerful ever built by NASA. It's poised to send an empty crew capsule into lunar orbit, a half-century after NASA's Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the moon.