NASA announced the names of the four astronauts assigned to Artemis II, the mission that will fly around the Moon to confirm all of Orion’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space.
This flight test will be NASA’s first Artemis flight with a crew and will pave the way to land the first woman and next man on the Moon during Artemis III.
Building on those missions, NASA’s Artemis program will return humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and future missions to worlds beyond, including Mars.
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The crew
Reid Wiseman will be the Commander.
He was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20 and qualified as an astronaut in 2011.
Wiseman served as Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for Expedition 41 in 2014 and most recently served as the Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Before joining NASA, he was a Navy Aviator and test pilot.
Victor Glover will serve as the Pilot.
He is a captain in the U.S. Navy where he pilots F/A-18 and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School.
Glover was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and was the pilot of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the ISS, the first post-certification mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
He then served as a Flight Engineer on the International Space Station for Expedition 64.
Christina Koch will be a Mission Specialist.
She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and served as a Flight Engineer on the ISS for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61.
Christina Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalk alongside Jessica Meir.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering.
Jeremy Hansen is the second Mission Specialist and represents Canada.
He was selected to join the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in the 2009 CSA selection.
Before becoming a Canadian astronaut, he was a Royal Canadian Air Force captain and pilot.
Hansen holds a Bachelor of Science in space science and a Master of Science in physics.
*All Crew images credits are to
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The mission
The Artemis II mission is set to launch in 2024, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a way similar to Artemis 1.
With crew aboard this mission, Orion and the upper stage will orbit Earth twice to ensure systems work as expected while still close to our planet.
After 90 minutes, the spacecraft will change its initial orbit into a high-Earth orbit; this maneuver will enable it to gain enough speed for the eventual push toward the Moon.
After the burn to enter high-Earth orbit, Orion will separate from the upper stage, and mission controllers at NASA will monitor the spacecraft as the astronauts switch it to manual mode.
The crew will assess the performance of the life support systems necessary to generate breathable air and remove the carbon dioxide and water vapor produced by the astronauts.
After this check, they will remove the Orion Crew Survival System suits they wear for launch and reentry.
After completing checkout procedures, Orion will perform a propulsion move that will send Artemis II on a trip of about four days around the moon before it returns home.
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