NASA on Monday announced the astronaut crew members who will land on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
The assortment of astronauts named for the Artemis II mission are set to fly 10 days around the moon aboard NASA’s Orion spaceship as soon as Nov. 2024, according to Insider.
They’re going to the Moon! Introducing the #Artemis II astronauts:
Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid), Commander
Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover), Pilot
Christina Koch (@Astro_Christina), Mission specialist
Jeremy Hanson (@Astro_Jeremy), Mission specialisthttps://t.co/Hy1110MOEi pic.twitter.com/SeETL5iURu— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) April 3, 2023
The team consist of three Americans – Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman – and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen, according to ABC News.
This is the first crewed lunar mission since the Apollo era. The crew was designed to represent a series of firsts for diverse identities, including Glover, the first black man; Koch, the first woman; and Hansen, the first Canadian to fly to the moon.
Wiseman will command Artemis II, while Glover will pilot the spacecraft.
The Artemis II astronauts will not step foot on the moon, but NASA promised that the next mission, Artemis III, will feature a woman and a black person walking on the moon. The most recent boots-on-the-moon landing was Apollo 17 in 1972.
White American men have been the only demographic to fly to the moon, and half of these men walked on the moon, according to Orlando Sentinel.
“It is not lost on any of us that the United States could choose to go back to the moon by themselves. But America has made a very deliberate choice over decades to curate a global team,” Hansen said.
The @NASA Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon will inspire the next generation of explorers, and show every child – in America, in Canada, and across the world – that if they can dream it, they can be it. pic.twitter.com/X8q3GLTBiQ
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 3, 2023
The announcement was made at a ceremony at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, according to 9 News.
“We need to celebrate this moment in human history, because Artemis II is more than a mission to the moon and back. It’s more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars,” Glover said.