NASA has announced this Monday to the four crew members of the Artemis II mission that in 2024 they will carry out a ten-day space mission around the Moon, in preparation for the return of man to the Earth’s satellite.
In a massive act held at the Johnson Center of the space agency in Houston, led by the chief of astronauts Joe Acaba, the chosen ones who will venture to the surroundings of the Moon on the Artemis II mission were announced. Its launch is scheduled for 2024, as confirmed in the act by NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
These are the Americans Gregory R Wiseman, as commander, the African-American VÃctor J. Glover as pilot, and the mission specialists Christina Koch, also from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen, the latter an astronaut from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Canada is a leading partner of NASA in the development of the Artemis program.
With this choice, the Artemis II mission will feature the first woman and the first person of color to set foot on the surface of the Moon after the last time two white men, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, did so during the Apollo 17 mission.
The team will travel aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft in the first crewed flight test of the Artemis Program, the agency’s plan to establish a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.
The mission, which will last approximately ten days, will test the life support systems of the Orion spacecraft, attached to the ESA service module, to demonstrate the capabilities and techniques necessary to live and work in deep space in a that humans can do, reports NASA.
Artemis II builds on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, mounted on the SLS rocket, on a journey of some 2.25 million kilometers beyond the Moon to test the systems before they were released. astronauts fly aboard systems on a mission to the surface of the Moon.