First Woman, Black Astronaut, Canadian to Make Historic Flight Around Moon in More Than 50 Years

NASA unveiled the crew on Monday for its first human mission to the Moon in greater than 50 years –- together with the primary lady and Black man to take part in a lunar flight.

Three Americans and one Canadian will fly across the Moon subsequent yr, changing into the primary astronauts to enterprise that deep into area for the reason that historic Apollo missions ended in 1972.

The flight, dubbed Artemis II, is scheduled to happen in November 2024 and is a prelude to returning people to the lunar floor for the primary time in a half century.

The three NASA astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch — named to Artemis II have all frolicked on the International Space Station (ISS) whereas Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency will probably be making his first area flight.

The 4 astronauts, dressed in blue flight fits, had been launched by NASA administrator Bill Nelson at an occasion on the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“The largest, strongest rocket in the world goes to propel them onward and upward into the heavens,” Nelson said. “We choose to go back to the Moon and then on to Mars.”

Koch, 44, {an electrical} engineer, holds the document for the longest consecutive time spent in area by a lady — 11 months — and took half in the primary all-female spacewalks whereas on the ISS.

“Am I excited?” Koch said. “Absolutely!”

Wiseman, 47, a US Navy fighter pilot who beforehand served as NASA’s chief astronaut, was named commander of the Artemis II mission, in which the spacecraft will circle the Moon however not land on it.

Glover, 46, additionally a naval aviator and the primary Black man to spend time as a crew member on the ISS, would be the pilot for the flight.

Koch and Hansen, a 47-year-old fighter pilot in the Canadian armed forces, will function mission specialists.

– Mars by 2040 –

Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and trade, attended the occasion and stated his nation “couldn’t be extra proud” to have a Canadian on the crew for the flight.

As part of the Artemis program, NASA aims to send astronauts to the Moon in 2025 — more than five decades after the final Apollo mission.

Besides putting the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, the US space agency hopes to establish a lasting human presence on the lunar surface and eventually launch a voyage to Mars.

Nelson, the NASA chief, has said he expects a crewed mission to Mars by the year 2040.

The 10-day Artemis II mission will take a look at NASA’s highly effective Space Launch System rocket in addition to the life-support programs aboard the Orion spacecraft.

The first Artemis flight wrapped up in December with an uncrewed Orion capsule returning safely to Earth after a 25-day journey around the Moon.

During the trip around Earth’s orbiting satellite and back, Orion logged well over a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) and went farther from Earth than any previous habitable spacecraft.

Only 12 people — all of them white men — have set foot on the Moon.

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