It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Introducing the first astronauts to return to lunar orbit in 50 years – including the first woman and person of colour.
In an event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA, NASA recently announced the names of the four astronauts who will crew Artemis 2, the first voyage around the Moon in over 50 years.
The crew, formed of three NASA astronauts and one astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, includes the first woman and the first person of colour to be assigned to a lunar mission.
The astronauts flying Artemis 2 to the Moon are:
- Christina Koch (NASA) – the first woman in space
- Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency)
- Victor Glover (NASA)
- Reid Wiseman (NASA)
Artemis 2 is scheduled for launch in late 2024, when the four astronauts will attempt to complete a lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Orion capsule and then return to Earth.
The mission will see the astronauts lift off from Kennedy Space Center before an approximate travel time of four days to the Moon. The crew will then conduct the mission’s ‘lunar flyby’ – an orbit of the Moon without landing – before the four-day return journey. The mission will end with re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and recovery after splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.
What is Artemis 2?
Artemis 2 is the final test flight within NASA’s Artemis programme which aims to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. As well as recruiting a more diverse crew of astronauts, the Artemis programme has a more international foundation than Apollo – with NASA this time collaborating with space agencies in Canada, Europe and Japan.
Artemis 2 is expected to reach a furthest distance of over 370,000km from Earth. By comparison, the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 420km above Earth. This is the furthest from Earth that humans have travelled since Apollo 17 in 1972.
It follows Artemis 1: the uncrewed, 25-day mission that launched in November 2022. Artemis 1 successfully demonstrated that NASA’s Space Launch System – the world’s most powerful rocket – and the Orion capsule (the part that will carry the astronauts) are fit for a crewed mission.
The 2.3 million km Artemis 2 mission will take place over 10 days in total, during which the four astronauts will confirm that the Orion capsule’s life support systems operate as expected with a crew on board. This will pave the way for the Artemis 3 mission which intends to send two astronauts to land on the Moon’s surface before 2030.
After Artemis 3, NASA plans to launch crewed missions once a year and establish a permanent Moon-orbiting space station called Lunar Gateway. NASA plans for continuous human presence including the use of scientific instruments on the Moon as a stepping stone towards future missions to Mars.
Read more:
- NASA unveils new next-generation spacesuit for Artemis Moon landing
- Instant Genius Podcast: Artemis’s first launch, with Libby Jackson
- If we colonise the Moon, will the colonists experience night and day?