1st moon crew in 50 years looks like America, includes woman and Black astronaut

NASA has named the four astronauts who will fly around the moon late next year. The crew includes the first woman and the first African American assigned to a lunar mission.

This team represents the first moon crew in 50 years. Composed of three Americans and one Canadia, the four members of the lunar mission team were introduced during a ceremony in Houston. In describing the members, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “This is humanity’s crew.”

The four astronauts, all in their 40’s, will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. They will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later. 

The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, will be joined by Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator; Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman; and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot and the crew’s lone space rookie. Wiseman, Glover, and Koch have all lived on the International Space Station.

This is the first NASA moon crew to include someone from outside the U.S. — and the first crew in NASA’s new moon program named Artemis after the twin sister of mythology’s Apollo. Last year, an empty Orion capsule flew to the moon and back in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.