[New post] NASA announces 4 astronauts flying to the moon on Artemis II
gqlshare posted: "Richard Tribou | Orlando SentinelHumans haven't traveled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years, but that's set to change with the launch of the Artemis II mission to orbit the moon next year. Just who will be flying was revealed Monday.NASA and the" The Willits News
Humans haven't traveled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years, but that's set to change with the launch of the Artemis II mission to orbit the moon next year. Just who will be flying was revealed Monday.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced the four crew members that will climb aboard the Orion spacecraft to be launched atop the Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center as early as November 2024.
Commanding the mission will be Reid Wiseman, the former head of NASA's astronaut office who stepped down to be eligible to fly on missions again. He will be joined by NASA astronaut Victor Glover, who will act as pilot, NASA astronaut and mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.
— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) April 3, 2023
"This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate," Glover said. "It's so much more than the four names that have been announced. We need to celebrate this moment in human history. Because Artemis II is more than a mission to the moon and back. It's more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars. This crew will never forget that."
Wiseman, Koch and Glover each have one spaceflight under their belts while Hansen is the lone rookie.
Wiseman, 47, was born in Baltimore. He was chosen as part of the 2009 class of astronaut candidates, and flew on a 165-day mission to the ISS during Expedition 41 in 2014.
Koch, 44, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was chosen as part of the 2013 class of astronaut candidates. She holds the record for the longest continuous time in space for a woman when she spent 328 days aboard the International Space Station during Expeditions 59, 60 and 61 from 2019-2020.
Glover, 46, who was born in Pomona, California was also part of the 2013 astronaut class. He was pilot of the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon launching from Kennedy Space Center on the Crew-1 mission in November 2020 for a 168-day trip to the ISS. He goes by the nickname Ike, given by fellow astronauts as an acronym for "I Know Everything."
Hansen, 47, who was born in London, Ontario, was named a CSA astronaut in 2009 after piloting fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
(L-R) Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Hammock Koch stand onstage after being selected for the Artemis II mission who will venture around the Moon during a news conference held by NASA and CSA at Ellington airport in Houston, Texas, on April 3, 2023. – Traveling aboard NASAs Orion spacecraft during Artemis II, the mission is the first crewed flight test on the agencys path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
The new Chief of the Astronaut Office, Joe Acabá, a former Central Florida science teacher, was originally announced as one of the potential Artemis mission astronauts back in 2020, but took on the new management role this year after Wiseman stepped down. He and Norman Knight, the Director of NASA's Flight Operations Directorate made the astronaut choices with the approval of NASA leadership.
"We're here today with a mission to introduce the world to the crew of Artemis II, four names, four explorers, four of my friends, answering the call to once more rocket away from Earth and chart a course around the moon," Acabá said.
As he stood on stage and most of the current astronaut corps filed past him on stage Acabá teased the audience saying, "Now some of you might be scanning the astronaut faces trying to see who is missing and still hidden back stage. Well know this, your Artemis II crew members are already here in the room with you. But because I love you all, I'm going to give you one hint. I am not one of them" which was met with applause and laughter. "Don't be so happy about that."
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson took the mic to call each of the four onto stage.
"The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew. This is our crew. This is humanity's crew. May I introduce them to you all?" he asked with a big grin on his face met with more cheers and applause.
The @NASA Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon will inspire the next generation of explorers, and show every child – in America, in Canada, and across the world – that if they can dream it, they can be it. pic.twitter.com/X8q3GLTBiQ
Glover, Wiseman and Nelson all took time to point out how the Artemis program can help bring not only world partners together, but political parties as well, a light-handed call for future support of the space exploration program that will have cost an estimated $93 billion by 2025 that requires bipartisan budget support.
"So here we have it, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy. Each of these adventurers has their own story, but together, they represent our creed. E Pluribus Unum, out of many one," Nelson said.
Hansen's seat will make him the first person other than an American to fly to deep space, a tradeoff for Canada's contribution of the robotic arm Canadarm3 to the future Gateway lunar space station, part of how the U.S. has leaned on its international partners to support the Artemis program."It is not lost on any of us that the United States could choose to go back to the moon by themselves," Hansen said. "But America has made a very deliberate choice over decades to curate a global team."
The mission will take the quartet will fly to the moon, but not land. It won't be until Artemis III that humans will return to the lunar surface, and that mission is slated for December 2025, but reliant on SpaceX completing a version of its Starship spacecraft to act as the Human Landing System.
Instead, Artemis II will fly on what's planned for a 10-day mission flying a similar path to what was accomplished during the successful Artemis I mission that launched from KSC last November.
It will be the first time humans have flown to the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
"Human spaceflight is like a relay race," Glover said. "That baton has been passed generation to generation and from crew member to crew member from the Gemini, Mercury-Gemini, Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, Mir, the shuttle, International Space Station, commercial crew, and now the Artemis missions. We understand our role in that. And when we have the privilege of having that baton."
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