WASHINGTON: NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will announce the names of the four astronauts – three Americans and one Canadian – next week who will venture around the Moon as part of the Artemis II, the first-ever human lunar mission since the landing of Apollo 17 in December 1972.
The quartet – the first humans in half a century to go close to the moon – will be traveling aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft during Artemis II. The big event will run from Ellington Field near the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The ceremony will begin at 11 am EDT (1500 GMT) on Monday (April 3).
Artemis II
Artemis II is the first crewed flight test on the NASA’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the moon. The approximately 10-day mission will put Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems to test to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and operate in deep space in ways only humans can do.
The mission is based on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion, atop the SLS rocket, on a 1.4 million-mile journey beyond the Moon in a bid to test systems before astronauts venture on the lunar journey.
NASA also plans to send the first woman and person of color to the moon as part of the Artemis missions.
