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

Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the report for the longest steady spaceflight by a lady, 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 turn out 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 Worldwide House Station veteran, named as Artemis II mission commander.

The Artemis II quartet have been launched at a televised information convention in Houston on the Johnson House Heart, NASA’s mission management base.

Artemis II will mark the debut crewed flight – however not the primary lunar touchdown – of an Apollo successor program aimed 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.