US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Monday announced the names of four astronauts for the moon mission, who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission. NASA named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.
Advertisement
Advertisement
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, at the event, named four astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen for the mission.
The astronauts won’t land on the Moon, but their mission will pave the way for a touchdown by a subsequent crew.
The objective of the 10-day Artemis II journey around the moon and back, is to demonstrate that all of Orion’s life-support apparatus and other systems will operate as designed with astronauts aboard in deep space. Artemis II will venture some 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the far side of the moon before returning, marking the closest pass humans have made to Earth’s natural satellite since Apollo 17, which carried Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt to the lunar surface in December 1972.
Last year, the agency tested its next-generation Moon rocket, called the Space Launch System, and its associated crew capsule, known as Orion. This Artemis-1 mission left Earth on a 25-day excursion around the Moon without anyone on board. This allowed engineers to assess the readiness of the hardware.
Advertisement