NASA Announces Crew for 2024 Flight Around the Moon

The crew for the first manned space flight to orbit the moon in over half a century has been introduced by representatives from NASA and the Canadian Space Administration. The international team of astronauts will fly aboard Artemis II in 2024, the second preparatory flight before a planned lunar landing in 2025.

U.S. Navy Capt. G. Reid Wiseman will command Artemis II, with Navy Capt. Victor Glover Jr. as the pilot. U.S. engineer and veteran astronaut Christina Hammock Koch and Col. Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, a former fighter pilot, will be the flight specialists. Hansen will be the first non-American to leave Earth’s orbit and fly to the moon.

The announcement was made by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, at Ellington Field, part of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Among the hundreds gathered for the announcement were Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Brian Babin (R-Texas), and Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), along with around 40 American, Canadian, and Japanese astronauts and dozens of Houston-area school children.

The Artemis program aims to return to the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefit, and to inspire a new generation of explorers in a joint effort by the U.S.-led and involving the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Canadian Space Agency, and dozens of private companies. The Artemis I mission successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon and its return between Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, 2022.

Artemis II will carry its crew of four to orbit the moon and stress test the ship’s systems in preparation for the eventual establishment of a permanent base camp on the lunar surface. The ultimate goal of the program is to pave the way for a human mission to Mars.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Dynetics, and Aerojet, among other companies, are fabricating major components of mission systems, including the Space Launch System, Orion space capsule, planned space platform, and lunar base camp.

Enthusiastic Crew

Wiseman, 47, was the lead engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) from May through November 2014, spending more than 165 days in space and spacewalking for 13 hours, also serving as chief of NASA’s astronaut office from 2020 to 2022.

“There are three words that we keep saying in the Artemis program, and they are, ‘We are going!'” Wiseman said.

Glover, 46, piloted NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1, which landed in May 2021 after 168 days in space. He has been a flight engineer on the ISS and has made four spacewalks. He likened the Artemis missions to one leg in a relay race of space exploration.

“You may often hear people say human spaceflight is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “Human spaceflight is like a relay race. And that baton has been passed from generation to generation and from crew member to crew,” he said, recalling the various programs in the history of space flight.

“And we understand our role in that,” Glover said. “And when we have the privilege of having that baton, we’re going to do our best to run a good race to make you proud.”