The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) may send four astronauts on a spacecraft as part of its first manned mission to the moon in more than five decades, a journey that is expected to take them further into deep space than humans have ever traveled before.
USA Today reported that these astronauts will travel up to 6,000 miles beyond the lunar surface; the crew of NASA’s mission, known as Artemis II, will witness parts of the far side of the moon not even seen by Apollo astronauts. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Among the four astronauts on the Artemis II crew will be the first black man, the first woman and the first Canadian ever to fly on a mission to the moon.
Here’s everything you need to know about the four astronauts:
1. Commander Reid Wiseman: Reid Wiseman is a decorated Navy veteran. A native of Baltimore, Wiseman, 50, served two missions in the Middle East and also trained as a test pilot before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2019. He was in space once. In 2014, Wiseman spent nearly six months on the International Space Station (ISS), completing two spacewalks and helping the crew set a station record by completing 82 hours of research in a week. He is a single father of two after losing his wife Carroll Taylor Wiseman to cancer in 2020.
2. Pilot Victor Glover: 49-year-old Victor Glover is a naval aviator and test pilot who also piloted the Crew-1 mission to the ISS. Launched in November 2020, the six-month mission marked the first trip to an orbital base after the Dragon crew capsule was certified for spaceflight through a partnership between NASA and SpaceX. The Crew-1 mission was Glover’s first and only space flight, and he was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. Hailing from Pomona, California, Glover holds multiple master’s degrees, is married, and has four daughters.
3. Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen: Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian, is the only member of the Artemis II crew to make his maiden voyage into space. The 50-year-old previously worked as a fighter pilot and was selected by the Canadian Space Agency to train astronauts in 2009. In 2017, Hansen became the only Canadian to lead a group of NASA astronaut recruits. Hansen, a husband and father of three, grew up on a farm in Ontario.
4. Mission Specialist Christina Koch: Christina Koch hails from Jacksonville, North Carolina and already has a record-breaking career as an astronaut. She was first selected for the same astronaut class as Glover, but made history in 2019 when she performed the first all-female spacewalk on the ISS. On October 28, 2019, she spent over seven hours in the suit and was exposed to the vacuum of space with astronaut Jessica Meir, who is back on base as part of the Crew-12 mission.
Koch spent almost all of 2019 in space, her first and so far only mission. At 328 days, she set the record for the longest space flight by any American woman. Other than her, only three NASA astronauts have been on longer individual missions than her. Koch, 47, is also an avid hobbyist whose favorite activities include surfing, rock climbing and more.
Mission Artemis II
According to reports, while the astronauts will not land directly on the moon during their 10-day mission, it will play a significant role in preparing for a future human landing as early as 2028 as part of the space agency’s Artemis program. The four-person crew will also be the first to travel in NASA’s Orion spacecraft, launched into orbit aboard a Space Launch System rocket.
