NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the names of four astronauts who will orbit the Moon as part of the upcoming historic Artemis II mission. It will be the first human mission to the Earth's satellite since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The crew will be led by Commander Reid Wiseman, joined by pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch from the United States, and mission specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. Thus, the mission crew includes three US astronauts and one Canadian. Also, the crew includes the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Canadian on a lunar mission.

This will be Reid Wiseman's second trip into space. He previously served as a flight engineer aboard the ISS. Wiseman spent more than 165 days in space.

This mission will also be the second spaceflight for Victor Glover, who previously served as a pilot on NASA's SpaceX Crew-1.

Christina Koch will also make her second flight into space as part of the Artemis II mission. She previously set the record for the longest stay in space by a female astronaut, with a total of 328 days in space, and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.

Representing Canada, Jeremy Hansen is making his first flight into space. A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and former fighter pilot, he has a Bachelor of Science in space science and a Master of Science in physics.

The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch in November 2024. The crew will fly in NASA's Orion capsule, which will be launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) – NASA's most powerful rocket. After launch, the capsule will spend some time in high Earth orbit and then fly around the Moon before returning to Earth.

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Artemis I, an uncrewed lunar orbital mission, launched last November. It served as a test flight for subsequent crewed missions. People won't land on the Moon until Artemis III, which is scheduled to launch in December 2025.

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