NASA’s Artemis II astronauts (left to right): Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman (seated), Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen|NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center|CC BY-NC 2.0
Space agency NASA revealed the team of astronauts for its first human-led lunar mission since 1972.
Scheduled for 2024, Artemis II—with its four-member crew—will go around the Moon, fly by its surface while testing systems for future missions and return to Earth in ten days.
The Artemis missions
Artemis II is the second phase of a three-part mission to have astronauts on the lunar surface by 2025. Artemis I was the first phase that had an uncrewed spacecraft orbit our natural satellite.
The third part aims to land humans on the Moon.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be making the journey next year. It is the first time a woman and a person of color will travel to the Moon. Hansen is also the first Canadian astronaut to fly around the Moon.
What next?
NASA is looking to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon for science and space explorations. The missions are also a possible warm-up for Mars settlement. One of the Artemis II astronauts, Victor Glover, said the same yesterday, “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 that gets humanity to Mars.”