NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have released the names of the astronauts selected to crew the Artemis II mission to fly by the Moon. The team will include mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch from NASA and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from CSA. The first crewed mission for the Artemis program, Artemis II is tentatively scheduled to launch in November 2024.
“For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals—the Artemis II crew—will be the first humans to fly to the vicinity of the Moon,” said NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche. “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.”
Artemis II is expected to remain in space for approximately 10 days, performing a lunar flyby and system tests in preparation for the third Artemis mission, which will aim to land people on the Moon for the first time since 1972. It will be the second spaceflight for Wiseman, Glover and Koch who have logged 165 days, 168 days and 328 days in space respectively. It will be the first trip for Hansen.
As previously reported by AVweb, the uncrewed Artemis I mission launched last November. As with Artemis I, Artemis II will use NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule. The Artemis program is looking to pave the way for “long-term human exploration missions to the Moon, and eventually Mars.”
