NASA’s first Moon shot in 50 years to put woman, African American into orbit
NASA has named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly as early as next year on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.
The astronauts chosen to man NASA's first landing on the Moon for 50 years. (Image: NASA)
Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, was named as a mission specialist, along with Victor Glover, a US Navy aviator, who was selected as the Artemis II pilot.
Glover, who was part of the second crewed flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, would become the first astronaut of colour ever to be sent on a lunar mission.
Rounding out the four-member crew are Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian ever chosen for a flight to the moon, as a mission specialist, and Reid Wiseman, an International Space Station veteran, named as Artemis II mission commander.
The Artemis II quartet were introduced at a televised news conference in Houston at the Johnson Space Center, NASA’s mission control base.
Artemis II will mark the debut crewed flight – but not the first lunar landing – of an Apollo successor program aimed at returning astronauts to the moon’s surface later this decade and ultimately establishing a sustainable outpost there, creating a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.
All 12 NASA astronauts who landed on the moon during a total of six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972 were white men.
