NASA Names Astronauts Selected for Upcoming Moon Mission

by M. C. Millman

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the names of the four astronauts who will travel around the moon on Artemis II.

The mission will include U.S. astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The $90 billion mission is a collaboration of commercial and international partners. It will be the first crewed mission in line with NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence on the moon. 

The mission will use innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. The crew will establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface of the moon and the Gateway in lunar orbit. This will allow the astronauts and robots to explore and research.

The goal is to maintain American leadership in exploration and take what is learned on and around the moon to build a global alliance, explore deep space further, and send the first astronauts to Mars.

The Artemis 2 launch is scheduled to take off in November 2024 at the earliest, taking astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

photo credit: Flickr