Nasa selects first girl, first Black astronauts for Artemis II lunar flyby

NASA on Monday named the primary girl and the primary African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as a part of the four-member group chosen to fly as early as subsequent 12 months on what could be the primary crewed voyage across the moon in additional than 50 years.

Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the document for the longest steady spaceflight by a girl, was named as a mission specialist, together with Victor Glover, a U.S. Navy aviator, who was chosen because the Artemis II pilot. (ALSO READ: What Is NASAs Artemis 1 Mission?)

Glover, who was a part of the second crewed flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, would grow to be the primary astronaut of color ever to be despatched on a lunar mission.

Rounding out the four-member crew are Jeremy Hansen, the primary 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 had been launched at a televised news convention in Houston on the Johnson Space Center, NASA’s mission management base.

Artemis II will mark the debut crewed flight – however not the primary lunar touchdown – of an Apollo successor program geared toward returning astronauts to the moon’s floor later this decade and finally establishing a sustainable outpost there, making a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.