NASA's selection of four astronauts for the first crewed lunar trip in 50 years

The four astronauts will now begin training for the historic Artemis II lunar flyby, which is scheduled to launch in November 2024. This will be the first crewed moon trip in fifty years.

The astronauts are Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman of NASA.

Wiseman, an accomplished test pilot and navy aviator who is 47 years old, was first chosen to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. He is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and has been into space once before, completing a 165-day mission to the International Space Station in 2014. Wiseman most recently worked as the astronaut office's director before retiring in November 2022.The mission's commander, Wiseman, will lead Artemis II.

The Canadian Space Agency chose Hansen, a 47-year-old combat pilot, for astronaut training in 2009. Hansen, a native of London, Ontario, is one of only four active Canadian astronauts and was just appointed as the nation's first astronaut trainer for a fresh batch of NASA astronauts.He will make history as the first Canadian to visit the deep space.

The second crewed voyage of SpaceX's Crew Dragon was piloted by 46-year-old navy aviator Glover, who made his first trip into space in 2021. Glover spent over six months on the International Space Station.

During the announcement on Monday at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glover remarked, "It's so much more than the four names that have been announced." "We must commemorate this turning point in human history. That is the following phase in the process that will bring people to Mars.

Six spacewalks have been completed by Koch, 44, including the first all-female spacewalk in 2019. With 328 days in space, she holds the record for the longest solo spaceflight by a woman. Koch is also an electrical engineer who assisted in the creation of research instruments for a number of NASA missions. Koch, a Grand Rapids, Michigan native, also spent a year at the South Pole; this rigorous time there may have helped Koch prepare for the rigours of a moon journey.

The Artemis II mission will build on Artemis I, an unmanned test mission that culminated in December after sending NASA's Orion spacecraft on a 1.4 million-mile journey to orbit the moon. That mission was judged successful by the space agency, which is still reviewing all of the data that was gathered.

Artemis II is anticipated to pave the way for Artemis III, which NASA has promised will send the first woman and person of colour on the lunar surface, later this decade. Also, it will be the first time since the Apollo program's conclusion in 1972 that people have set foot on the moon.

Later this decade, the Artemis III mission is anticipated to launch. However, a lot of the equipment needed for the expedition, such as lunar landers to transport the astronauts to the moon's surface and spacesuits for walking on the moon, is still under development.

NASA is aiming to launch Artemis III in 2025, but the inspector general of the space agency has already stated that delays will probably cause the mission to launch in 2026.