NASA Announces Artemis II Crew: First Manned Moon Mission Since 1972

NASA revealed the four astronauts for the Artemis II mission on April 3, 2023: Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The crew will launch in November 2024 on a 10-day lunar flyby mission, marking the first crewed moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis II mission will send the Orion spacecraft beyond the moon and back to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown, paving the way for Artemis III which aims to land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface later this decade. The mission builds on the successful uncrewed Artemis I test flight that completed a 1.4 million-mile journey around the moon in December 2022.