NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, center, stands with the crew of the Artemis II mission, from left: Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch.
NASA TV
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Monday announced the four astronauts who will fly on the agency’s upcoming mission around the moon, currently scheduled for late 2024.
Known as the Artemis II mission, the spaceflight will carry three Americans and one Canadian: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Wiseman is the mission’s commander and Glover is the pilot, while Hansen and Koch are mission specialists.
Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission, which completed a nearly month-long journey around the moon late last year. The Artemis program represents a series of missions with escalating goals. The third – tentatively scheduled for 2025 – is expected to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo era.
The Artemis II mission will launch on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, with the Orion capsule carrying the astronauts on a 10-day journey to the moon and back. While Artemis II won’t land on the moon, it will make a near pass above the surface and demonstrate the Orion spacecraft’s ability to transport people safely.
