NASA announces crew for first manned lunar mission Artemis

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the list of four astronauts who will be on board Orion during the Artemis II moon mission.

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American captain Reid Wiseman, a test pilot for the US Navy, has been named crew commander. He has flown the fourth generation F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet fighters and the fifth generation F-35C Lightning II.

The second crew member was American pilot Victor J. Glover, a captain in the US Navy. He flew two dozen combat missions during the Iranian War and was also part of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission in 2020.

Also part of the Artemis II crew was American Christina Hammock Koch. She is a research scientist with the US Antarctic Program and holds the record for the longest female spacewalk (328 days, 13 hours 58 minutes).

Finally, the fourth member of the crew is Colonel Jeremy Hansen of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was a pilot on the CF-18 Hornet, a fourth-generation deck fighter and has no experience in spaceflight.

Artemis II is the second overall mission of the Artemis lunar programme and the first manned mission. It is scheduled for late 2024. The SLS Block 1 rocket will send the Orion spacecraft and crew to lunar orbit. The mission duration is 10 days.

Source: NASA