NASA has announced the identities of four astronauts, three men and one woman, who have been selected for the first crewed Moon mission in over 50 years, Artemis 2. As expected, the crew includes a Canadian astronaut as the first non-American.

NASA announces astronauts of the Artemis 2 mission for the Moon!

The astronaut crew for Artemis 2 was announced in a live event held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. The crew consists of NASA astronaut Victor Glover as the pilot, mission specialists Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen as the mission commander. These four astronauts will travel in the Orion capsule for the planned Moon mission in 2024.

During the event, Vanessa Wyche, the director of the NASA Johnson Space Center, said:

“In 60 years, we have taken many giant steps, achieved President Kennedy’s goal of landing humans on the Moon, and today we stand on the shoulders of giants, looking forward to going forward to the Moon and Mars.“

The Orion capsule was launched to the Moon in November 2022 for a 25-day journey, but there were no humans on board. Artemis 2, scheduled for 2024, will be the first crewed Moon mission since the Apollo days. However, the Artemis 2 crew will not land on the Moon. Instead, they will travel for 10 days to the unexplored far side of the Moon, approximately 230,000 miles away from Earth.

As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions or beliefs. However, I can say that NASA’s Artemis 2 mission is an important step forward in space exploration, and it will be interesting to see the results of their efforts. The success of the mission will depend on many factors, including technology, preparation, and execution, and only time will tell if it will be a success.