NASA on Monday, April 3, 2023, named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year, including one woman and three men.
The three Americans and one Canadian were introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation’s astronauts as well as Mission Control.
Christina Koch will become the first woman astronaut ever assigned to a lunar mission, while Victor Glover will be the first black astronaut on one.
They will join Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen to fly a capsule around the Moon late next year or early in 2025. Wiseman will be the Commander; Glover will be his pilot; Koch and Hansen will act as the supporting “mission specialists”.
The astronauts will not land on the Moon, but their mission will pave the way for a touchdown by a subsequent crew. They will now begin a period of intense training to get themselves ready.
In selecting a woman and a person of colour, NASA is keeping its promise to bring greater diversity to its exploration efforts. All the previous crewed missions to the Moon were made by white men.
The quartet are essentially repeating the 1968 mission carried out by Apollo 8, which was the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. Its crew took the famous “Earthrise” picture that showed our home planet emerging from behind the lunar horizon.
The major difference this time will be the use of the 21st Century technology that NASA has developed under its Artemis programme. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo.
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.
Now, the newly named astronauts will climb into Orion for Artemis-2 and a journey to and from the Moon that’s likely to take about 10 days.
Humanity’s Crew
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “The Artemis-2 crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew, this is our crew, this is humanity’s crew.”
“NASA astronauts; Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, each has their own story, but, together, they represent our creed: E pluribus unum – out of many, one. Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers – the Artemis Generation.”
Bill Nelson
Vanessa Wyche, the Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center, stated, “Among the [Artemis-2] crew are the first woman, first person of colour, and first Canadian on a lunar mission, and all four astronauts will represent the best of humanity as they explore for the benefit of all.”
“This mission paves the way for the expansion of human deep space exploration and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industry and academic partnerships and the Artemis Generation.”
Vanessa Wyche
The last human spaceflight mission to the Moon was Apollo 17 in December 1972. The first landing was Apollo 11 in 1969.
Artemis-3, the first landing of the new era, is not expected to occur until at least 12 months after Artemis-2.
NASA does not yet have a system capable of taking astronauts down to the lunar surface. This is being developed by entrepreneur, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Company. Called Starship, the vehicle is due to start flight testing in the next few weeks.
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