It\u2019s the moment we\u2019ve all been waiting for. Introducing the first astronauts to return to lunar orbit in 50 years \u2013 including the first woman and person of colour. <\/p>
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<\/a>, the first voyage around the Moon in over 50 years.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The astronauts flying Artemis 2 to the Moon are:<\/p>\n Artemis 2 is scheduled for launch in late 2024, when the four astronauts will attempt to complete a lunar orbit aboard NASA\u2019s Orion capsule and then return to Earth.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s \u2018lunar flyby\u2019 \u2013 an orbit of the Moon without landing \u2013 before the four-day return journey. The mission will end with re-entry into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and recovery after splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n Artemis 2 is the final test flight within NASA\u2019s 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 \u2013 with NASA this time collaborating with space agencies in Canada, Europe and Japan.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n It follows Artemis 1: the uncrewed, 25-day mission<\/a> that launched in November 2022. Artemis 1 successfully demonstrated that NASA\u2019s Space Launch System \u2013 the world\u2019s most powerful rocket \u2013 and the Orion capsule (the part that will carry the astronauts) are fit for a crewed mission.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s surface before 2030.<\/p>\n After Artemis 3, NASA plans to launch crewed missions once a year and establish a permanent Moon-orbiting space station called Lunar Gateway<\/a>. NASA plans for continuous human presence including the use of scientific instruments on the Moon as a stepping stone towards future missions to Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s the moment we\u2019ve all been waiting for. Introducing the first astronauts to return to lunar orbit in 50 years \u2013 including the first woman and person of colour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25915,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/04\/nasa-reveals-artemis-2-astronauts-meet-the-most-diverse-crew-to-voyage-to-the-moon.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It\u2019s the moment we\u2019ve all been waiting for. Introducing the first astronauts to return to lunar orbit in 50 years \u2013 including the first woman and person of colour.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is Artemis 2?<\/h2>\n
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