NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced on Monday the four astronauts who will join the next Artemis mission and fly around the moon.
The Artemis II team is made up of three Americans — Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman — and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.
The team included Koch as the first woman and Glover as the first person of color to eventually set foot on the lunar surface. Glover will be the pilot of the spacecraft and Wiseman will be the commander of Artemis II.
The agencies made the announcement at a media event at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.
“We are here today with a mission to introduce the world to the crew of Artemis II for the names, for the explorers, for my friends, to answer the call to restore the rocket from Earth, and plan a course around the moon,” Joe Acaba, chief of NASA’s astronaut office, said at the start of the event.
Glover, 46, will be the first person of color to travel on the moon. Glover was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013 and most recently served as pilot and second-in-command of the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2020.
He spent almost 167 days in space. According to NASA, Glover is the first African American astronaut to join a long-duration crew on an expedition aboard the International Space Station.
“We should celebrate this moment in human history because Artemis II was more than just a mission to the moon and back,” Glover said. “This is more than just a mission that needs to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. This is the next step in the journey that brings humanity to Mars and this crew, we will never forget that.”
Koch, 43, made history with fellow astronaut Jessica Mer in October 2019 when they joined the first all-female spacewalk.
Koch was also selected as an astronaut in 2013 and has completed six spacewalks. She currently holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days.
“We’re not going to the moon right away,” he said. “We will remain in an incredibly high orbit, reaching a maximum of ten thousand miles while we test all of Orion’s systems and even how it maneuvers in space. And then if everything looks good , we’re going to the moon.”
Wiseman, 47, is a decorated naval aviator who was selected to become an astronaut in June 2009.
In 2014, he served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station and, during a 165-day mission, completed more than 300 experiments with his crew. Wiseman most recently served as chief of the astronaut office, but resigned in November because the chief could not fly in space.
Hansen, 47, was a fighter pilot before he joined CSA and now he helps NASA with astronaut training and mission operations.
Not only was this Hansen’s first space mission but he was also the first Canadian to travel to the moon.
President Joe Biden congratulated the team in a tweet on Monday, which included a video of him speaking with the Artemis II team.
“Look, I want to thank you for your incredible service,” Biden said in the clip. “The mission you’re about to do, the United States will return men to the moon. It’s hard to believe for the first time in over 50 years.”
This comes after the Artemis I mission ended in December last year after spending 25.5 days in space and making a 1.4 million mile journey around the moon, according to NASA.
Artemis I is the first step in NASA’s ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon and, later, send a crewed shuttle to Mars.
Artemis II is scheduled to send four astronauts into space in 2024 for a lunar flyby before returning to Earth.
This will be the first crewed mission aboard NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and the first to launch the agency’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.
“With Artemis I, we set out to prove that the hardware is ready, that SLS is ready to launch our astronauts into the sky, that Orion is equipped to take them to the moon and back again safely, ” said Norman Knight, director of NASA’s Flight Operations Directorate. “Artemis I was a great success and Artemis II will capitalize on that by putting people inside.”
The mission will last 10 days, but the system will have to go through several tests first to make sure it can support people living and working in deep space, NASA said.
This is the first set of missions used by NASA to send a crew to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, more than 50 years ago.
The mission broke several records including the longest spacewalk and the largest number of lunar samples brought back to Earth and also involved several experiments, including sending five mice into space with the crew.
“Over the course of the Artemis missions, the first woman and the first person of color will take giant leaps, onto the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
In total, the Artemis expedition includes four missions, each of which will cost approximately $4.1 billion. The project will cost up to $93 billion by 2025, according to an audit from the NASA Office of the Inspector General.
Artemis III plans to send four astronauts to the moon in 2025 while Artemis IV plans to be the second lunar landing in 2027.
In addition to establishing a permanent base camp on the moon, the program aims to be the gateway to future human missions to Mars.
“Under Artemis, we will explore the boundaries of space and push the boundaries of what is possible,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “You can walk on the moon or be one of the many explorers who venture to Mars. We all look forward to you being part of our mission.”
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
