In an event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA, NASA recently announced the names of the four astronauts who will crew Artemis 2, the first voyage around the Moon in over 50 years.
The crew, formed of three NASA astronauts and one astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, includes the first woman and the first person of colour to be assigned to a lunar mission.
The astronauts flying Artemis 2 to the Moon are:
- Christina Koch, 44 (NASA) who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. She is from Michigan and has completed 328 days in space since joining NASA in 2001. With a background in electrical engineering, Koch spent a year training at the South Pole.
- Jeremy Hansen, 47 (CSA) who is the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut, though in 2017 was put in charge of training new NASA astronauts as well as Canadians. While he was selected to be an astronaut in 2009, this will be his first flight assignment. “Imagine seeing our planet from space. It’s going to be amazing,” said Hansen in a video interview.
- Victor Glover, 46 (NASA), a naval aviator who completed his first spaceflight in 2021. He has spent 168 days in orbit and participated in four spacewalks. He hails from California and has an academic background in engineering.
- Reid Wiseman, 47 (NASA) who is also a decorated naval aviator from Maryland. He was selected for NASA’s 20th astronaut class in 2009 and recently served as Chief of the Astronaut Office.
While NASA had initially suggested the three American astronauts would be picked from the 18 astronauts in NASA’s Artemis Team, the group of candidates was expanded to the full pool of active NASA astronauts which includes Wiseman.
“I could not be prouder that these brave four will kickstart our journeys to the Moon and beyond,” said NASA director of flight operations Norm Knight. “They represent exactly what an astronaut corps should be: a mix of highly capable and accomplished individuals with the skills and determination to take on any trial as a team. The Artemis 2 mission will be challenging, and we’ll test our limits as we prepare to put future astronauts on the Moon. With Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy at the controls, I have no doubt we’re ready to face every challenge that comes our way.”
Artemis 2 is scheduled for launch in late 2024, when the four astronauts will attempt to complete a lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Orion capsule and then return to Earth.
The mission will see the astronauts lift off from Kennedy Space Center before an approximate travel time of four days to the Moon. The crew will then conduct the mission’s 'lunar flyby' – an orbit of the Moon without landing – before the four-day return journey. The mission will end with re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and recovery after splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.
What is Artemis 2?
Artemis 2 is the final test flight within NASA’s Artemis programme which aims to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. As well as recruiting a more diverse crew of astronauts, the Artemis programme has a more international foundation than Apollo – with NASA this time collaborating with space agencies in Canada, Europe and Japan.
Artemis 2 is expected to reach a furthest distance of over 370,000km from Earth. By comparison, the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 420km above Earth. This is the furthest from Earth that humans have travelled since Apollo 17 in 1972.
It follows Artemis 1: the uncrewed, 25-day mission that launched in November 2022. Artemis 1 successfully demonstrated that NASA’s Space Launch System – the world’s most powerful rocket – and the Orion capsule (the part that will carry the astronauts) are fit for a crewed mission.
The 2.3 million km Artemis 2 mission will take place over 10 days in total, during which the four astronauts will confirm that the Orion capsule’s life support systems operate as expected with a crew on board. This will pave the way for the Artemis 3 mission which intends to send two astronauts to land on the Moon’s surface before 2030.
After Artemis 3, NASA plans to launch crewed missions once a year and establish a permanent Moon-orbiting space station called Lunar Gateway. NASA plans for continuous human presence including the use of scientific instruments on the Moon as a stepping stone towards future missions to Mars.
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