NASA unveiled its groundbreaking selection of the first woman and first African American astronaut for the Artemis II lunar flyby mission, planned to launch as early as next year. The Artemis II mission will be the first crewed voyage around the moon in over five decades, marking a significant milestone for the space agency.
Christina Koch, a 44-year-old engineer, will serve as a mission specialist for the lunar flyby. Koch has already made history by setting a woman’s record for the longest continuous spaceflight and participating in NASA’s first three all-female spacewalks. In addition, a 46-year-old US Navy aviator, Victor Glover, will pilot the mission, making him the first Black astronaut to be sent on a lunar mission.
The crew includes Jeremy Hansen, a Royal Canadian Air Force colonel, as the first Canadian ever to be chosen for a moon flight. Hansen will serve as a mission specialist. Reid Wiseman, a 47-year-old former US Navy fighter pilot, will act as mission commander.
The Artemis II crew members were introduced during a televised event at the Johnson Space Center, NASA’s mission control base in Houston. All three NASA astronauts selected for the mission have prior experience aboard the International Space Station, while Hansen, an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, is new to spaceflight.
The Artemis II mission will follow the successful completion of Artemis I in December 2022, which marked the first uncrewed test flight of NASA’s next-generation mega-rocket and Orion spacecraft. The main objective of the Artemis II mission is to test Orion’s life-support apparatus and other systems with astronauts on board in deep space.
During the Artemis II mission, the spacecraft will travel about 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the moon’s far side before returning to Earth. This will be the closest human approach to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Following a successful Artemis II mission, NASA plans to conduct the Artemis III mission, including an unprecedented lunar landing on the moon’s south pole with astronauts, including a woman. Additional crewed missions are planned to follow annually.
The Artemis program represents a shift in NASA’s human spaceflight focus beyond low-Earth orbit, involving commercial partners like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and space agencies from Canada, Europe, and Japan.
