Nasa reveals crew for 2024 flight around the moon
- The Artemis II mission is a prelude to returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time in a half-century
- US astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch will be joined by Canadian Jeremy Hansen
Nasa revealed the names on Monday of the astronauts – three Americans and a Canadian – who will fly around the moon next year, a prelude to returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time in a half-century.
The three Nasa astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch – named to the Artemis II mission have all spent time on the International Space Station while Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency will be making his first space flight.
Koch, 44, an electrical engineer who took part in the first all-woman spacewalks while on the ISS, will be the first woman to fly around the moon.
The four astronauts, dressed in blue flight suits, were introduced by Nasa administrator Bill Nelson at an event at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
“The largest, most powerful rocket in the world is going to propel them onward and upward into the heavens,” Nelson said. “We choose to go back to the moon and then on to Mars.”
Wiseman, 47, a US Navy fighter pilot who previously served as Nasa’s chief astronaut, was named commander of the Artemis II mission, which is expected to take place in November 2024 with the crew circling the moon but not landing on it.
