NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have revealed the four astronauts who will travel around the Moon on Artemis II the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration. The agencies revealed the crew members on Monday during an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on 3 April 2023.
They are NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
"The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew, this is our crew, this is humanity's crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
The crew assignments are as follows: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen. The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight test will launch on the agency’s powerful Space Launch System rocket prove the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems, and validate the capabilities and techniques needed for humans to live and work in deep space.
Through Artemis missions, NASA will use innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before with future flights set to land humans on the surface of the Moon again for the first time since 1972. Then, the space agency will take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.