The team of astronauts will execute an ambitious set of demonstrations during the Artemis II flight test.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced a crew of four astronauts for the Artemis II mission during an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday. NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be part of the mission.
Talking about crew assignments, Wiseman has been assigned as Commander of the Artemis II mission, Glover will be the Pilot and Koch is the Mission Specialist I. CSA’s Hansen is assigned as the Mission Specialist II, becoming the first Canadian to ever venture to the Moon. The team will execute an ambitious set of demonstrations during the flight test, NASA said.
“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. Among the crew are the first woman, first person of color, and first Canadian on a lunar mission, and all four astronauts will represent the best of humanity as they explore for the benefit of all,” said Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA Johnson.
The second Artemis mission is expected to launch in November 2024. Artemis II will be the first flight with crew aboard NASA’s deep space exploration system which include the Orion spacecraft, the gigantic Space Launch System rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Over 10 days, the astronauts will monitor how the spacecraft’s systems perform with people aboard in the actual environment of deep space.
NASA successfully completed the first Artemis mission last year. The U.S. space agency launched the Artemis I mission with the gigantic Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in history, carrying the Orion spacecraft on November 16 from the Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA concluded its unmanned test mission – Artemis I after its Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific on December 11.
With a motley crew of mannequins and biological experiments in the Artemis I mission, the U.S. wants to build a sustained human presence on the Earth’s only natural satellite. Following two Artemis test missions, Artemis III would mark humanity’s first return, and see the touchdown of the first woman, to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
Last month, NASA unveiled the new spacesuits that will be worn by the astronauts on the Artemis III mission to the Moon. The U.S. space agency announced that moonwalkers will wear spacesuits provided by Axiom Space.
