The space agencies of the United States (NASA) and Canada (CSA) announced this Monday the members of the Artemis II mission, a woman and three men who in November 2024 will fly around the Moon in what will be the beginning of a new space age with Mars in sight.
The ten-day mission around the Moon will have Reid Wiseman as commander and Victor Glover as pilot, while astronaut Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen, the latter from the CSA, will serve as mission specialists.
As the US space agency pointed out, the 4 will be part of “NASA’s first manned mission on the way to establish a long-term presence on the Moon”, and it will also be the first in 50 years to return to the Earth’s satellite since the culmination of the Apollo program, which between 1968 and 1972 put 12 astronauts on the lunar surface.
“This is the crew of Humanity,” said Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, during the presentation ceremony held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston (Texas).
The former Democratic senator said the mission is “the beginning of a new era of exploration for a new generation of star navigators and dreamers: the Artemis Generation.”
The selection released today was made from among 41 active astronauts, while Canada had 4 candidates.
NASA plans to send the first manned mission of the Artemis program to land on the satellite by 2025. (Information DW).