WATCH: NASA names astronauts to Next Moon Mission under Artemis

US space agency NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have announced the four astronauts who will embark on a journey around the moon and back to Earth to establish a long-term presence on earth’s neighbour for science and exploration.

The agencies revealed the crew members on Monday during an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The astronauts will travel around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission for the first time in five decades that only 24 people have ever undertaken.

Watch the video of the the four astronauts who will embark on a journey around the moon

Crew

NASA’s crew includes the first woman, the first Black person, and the first non-American to ever leave low-Earth orbit.

Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will lift off on the approximately 10-day mission from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as November 2024.

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Humanity

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the astronauts represent humanity.

“The Artemis II 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.”

Spacecraft

Artemis II is NASA’s first mission with crew aboard our foundational deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft and will confirm all the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space.

The crew will endure the high-speed, high-temperature re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, where they will be met by a recovery team of NASA and Department of Defense personnel who will bring them back to shore.

Moon exploration

NASA said through Artemis missions, it will use “innovative technologies” to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

“We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars,” NASA said.

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