NASA announced 18 astronauts on Wednesday who comprise the next group hoping to lead the U.S. back to the moon in just a few years.
The Artemis program has a goal of landing the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, with a longer-range goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
Joe Acaba; Kayla Barron; Raja Chari; Matt Dominick; Victor Glover; Woody Hoburg; Jonny Kim; Kjell Lindgren; Nicole Mann; Anne McClain; Jessica Meir; Jasmin Moghbeli; Christina Koch; Kate Rubins; Frank Rubio; Scott Tingle; Jessica Watkins; and Stephanie Wilson comprise the Artemis astronaut team.
Vice President Mike Pence was present at the announcement.
NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), is designed to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft nearly a quarter-million miles from Earth to lunar orbit. Astronauts will dock Orion at the Gateway and transfer to a human landing system for expeditions to the moon’s surface. They will return to the orbital outpost to board Orion again before returning to Earth.
The agency plans to fly two missions around the moon to test its deep space exploration systems. NASA is working toward launching Artemis I, an unmanned flight to test the SLS and Orion spacecraft together, followed by the Artemis II mission, the first SLS and Orion test flight with crew. NASA is planning to land astronauts on the moon by 2024 on the Artemis III mission and about once a year thereafter.
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