(CNN) The astronauts who will lead the first crewed moon mission in five decades were revealed Monday, with the historic Artemis II lunar flyby set to begin training in November 2024.
The astronauts are Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
wise man A 47-year-old decorated naval aviator and test pilot who was selected as the first NASA astronaut in 2009. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he has completed one prior spaceflight, a 165-day trip to the International Space Station launched in 2014 aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. Most recently, Wiseman served as chief of the Astronaut Office before stepping down in November 2022, making him eligible for a flight assignment.
Wiseman will serve as Artemis II mission commander.
Hansen, 47, is a fighter pilot who was selected by the Canadian Space Agency for astronaut training in 2009. From London, Ontario, Hansen is one of only four active Canadian astronauts, and was recently the first Canadian to be commissioned. NASA is training for a new class of astronauts.
He will be the first Canadian to travel into deep space.
Glover A 46-year-old naval aviator who returns to Earth from his first spaceflight in 2021 A SpaceX crew piloting the second crewed flight Dragon spacecraft And spending about six months on the International Space Station.
“It’s a lot more than the four names that were announced,” Glover said during Monday’s announcement at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We need to celebrate this moment in human history. … This is the next step in the journey that will take humanity to Mars.”
Born in Pomona, California, Glover served in several military squadrons in the United States and Japan in the 2000s, and completed test pilot training with the US Air Force. When he was selected for the NASA Astronaut Corps in 2013, he was serving as a Legislative Fellow in the US Senate. All told, Glover logged 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, more than 400 carrier arrest landings and 24 combat missions.
Glover’s first mission in space was as part of the SpaceX Crew-1 team, which departed for the International Space Station in November 2020 for a six-month stay in the orbiting laboratory.
the coach44, a veteran of six spacewalks — including First all-female spacewalk in 2019. She holds the record for the longest solo spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space. Koch is also an electrical engineer who helped build scientific instruments for multiple NASA missions. Koch, a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan, also spent a year at the South Pole, a tough position that could prepare him for the rigors of a moon mission.
About this mission
Artemis II Mission Artemis I, a uncrewed test missions That sent NASA’s Orion capsule on a 1.4 million-mile journey to the moon that ended in December. The space agency deemed that mission a success and is still working to review all the data collected.
Artemis II lunar flyby mission crew members include (from left): NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman (foreground) and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
If all goes according to plan, Artemis II will launch around November 2024. Crew members trapped inside the Orion spacecraft will launch atop a NASA-developed Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The journey is expected to last about 10 days and send the crew beyond the moon, potentially further than any human journey in history, although the exact distance has yet to be determined.
“The exact distance beyond the Moon will depend on the duration of the mission and the Moon’s relative distance from Earth,” NASA spokeswoman Kathryn Hambleton said via email.
After orbiting the Moon, the spacecraft will return to Earth for a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean.
Artemis II is expected to pave the way for the Artemis III mission later this decade, which NASA has pledged will put the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface. It will mark the first time humans have landed on the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
The Artemis III mission is expected to launch later this decade. But the mission will require a lot of technology, incl Space suit For walking on the moon and a Lunar Lander To ferry astronauts to the surface of the Moon, is still in development.
NASA is targeting a 2025 launch date As for Artemis III, though, the space agency’s inspector general has already said delays will likely push the mission 2026 or later.
The space agency has been looking to return humans to the moon for more than a decade. The Artemis program was designed to pave the way for establishing a permanent lunar outpost, allowing astronauts to work deeper into space for long periods of time, and for NASA and its partners to map the path to sending the first humans to Mars.
Selection of astronauts
Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, declined to elaborate on the matter to CNN. selection process. But he emphasized the diversity of the Artemis II crew, which included men and women instead of a crew of only white male test pilots as in past historical missions.
“I can tell you, they all still have the right stuff,” Wyche said. “Our requirements are different than what we had (when we had) a test pilot.” Inaugural Mission.
Koch said in an interview with CNN’s Ed Lavandera that the group found out they were selected a few weeks ago.
“We were all sent to a meet that was on our calendar for a different excuse that didn’t sound as high as it was going to be,” the coach said. “And we both happened to be very late to that meeting.”
He said the proposal left him “speechless”.
“It’s really an honor,” he added. “It’s an honor – not to find myself in space – but because it’s amazing to be a part of this team going to the moon and back to Mars.”
An interview with the four astronauts will air Tuesday on “CNN This Morning,” beginning at 6 a.m.
CNN’s Christine Fisher contributed to this story.
