MADRID, Spain.- Four astronauts will travel to the Moon in 2024 aboard Artemis II. With this, man will return to the Moon after 53 years. The last mission in which humans traveled and walked on the Moon was Apollo 17, in 1972.
Those chosen for this feat are the Americans Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch (specialist), and Reid Wiseman (commander), and the Canadian Jeremy Hansen (specialist), announced NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA, for its acronym in English).
the astronauts were presented this week during an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Here they are. @SenBillNelson announces the #Artemis II crew, the next astronauts to fly around the Moon:@Astro_Christina@Astro_Jeremy@AstroVicGlover@Astro_Reid
We go together. https://t.co/XdUizg2Wye pic.twitter.com/6Yo4I2lKeJ
—NASA (@NASA) April 3, 2023
“The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people who work tirelessly to take us to the stars. This is your crew, this is our crew, this is the crew of humanity. (…) Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of navigators and stellar dreamers: the Artemis Generation,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator.
For her part, Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Center, said: “This mission paves the way for the expansion of human exploration of deep space and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industrial and academic partnerships, and for the Artemis Generation.
The Artemis II flight test, which will last about ten days, will be launched aboard NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket to demonstrate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems and validate capabilities and techniques. necessary for humans to live and work in deep space, NASA said through its website.
The flight will build on the successful Artemis I uncrewed mission conducted last December.
The statement also states that it will be the first time that a woman, an Afro-descendant and a Canadian travel to the Moon.
