Artemis II: Know The Four Astronauts Picked For NASA's First Crewed Moon Mission In Over 50 Years

The space agencies of the United States and Canada have named the four astronauts selected for the Artemis II lunar mission: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Koch.

Former astronaut Bill Nelson, who is now the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), announced the names during a live-streamed event on Monday (3 April).

"We are going," he said.

As part of Artemis II, astronauts will fly to lunar orbit, go around the Moon, and return to Earth.

It will be a step towards one day building long-term presence on the Moon, and eventually Mars, as part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach.

Reid Wiseman is set to lead the Artemis II mission as commander, having previously lived and worked on the International Space Station in 2014.

He has clocked more than 165 days in space, including almost 13 hours as lead spacewalker during two trips outside the orbital complex.

Wiseman has experience as the chief of NASA's astronauts and as commander of NEEMO21, a 16-day underwater mission that simulated space exploration.

NASA has assigned Victor Glover as the pilot for Artemis II. He'll be the one to navigate the Orion spacecraft around the Moon.

Glover has flown for NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission, and has experience of over 3,000 flight hours on more than 40 different aircraft.

Christina Koch, a former electrical engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will serve as mission specialist 1 on Artemis II.

She made history as part of the first all-woman spacewalk during her visit to the space station in 2019. Koch also holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space.

Canadian Space Agency representative Jeremy Hansen was previously a fighter pilot.

Despite working with NASA on astronaut training and mission operations, he is set to embark on his very first mission to space. He will serve as mission specialist 2.

"They will work as a team to execute an ambitious set of demonstrations during the flight test," NASA said.

NASA tested its human space exploration systems during the Artemis I robotic mission, which included the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Orion spacecraft, and associated ground systems.

These will all be tested in space during Artemis II, except that the second mission will carry humans.

The four astronauts will conduct a 10-day mission involving a trip around the Moon to test the Orion and its ability to support human life during deep space missions.

After launch, the Orion spacecraft and SLS's upper stage (the interim cryogenic propulsion stage) will orbit Earth twice to assess the functionality of all Orion systems while it's still close to the home planet.

The spacecraft will then journey 10,300 kilometres beyond the far side of the Moon. It will return to Earth by using the Earth-Moon gravity field, without any propulsion, thanks to its "lunar free return trajectory."