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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, center, stands with the Artemis II mission crew, left to right: Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch.
NASA television
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced on Monday the four astronauts who will participate in the agency’s next mission around the Moon, currently scheduled for the end of 2024.
Known as the Artemis II mission, the spaceflight will carry three Americans and one Canadian: NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.
Wiseman is the mission commander and Glover is the pilot, while Hansen and Koch are mission specialists.
Artemis II follows the uncrewed mission Artemis I, which completed a nearly month-long journey around the moon late last year. The Artemis program represents a series of missions with increasing objectives. The third – tentatively scheduled for 2025 – is expected to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo era.
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The Artemis II mission will launch on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, with the Orion capsule carrying astronauts on a 10-day trip to the moon and back. Although Artemis II will not land on the moon, it will make a close pass above the surface and demonstrate the Orion spacecraft’s ability to transport people safely.