NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will send American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1969. The men and women that will take part in these historic missions were announced last week at a meeting at the Kennedy Space Center.
The team includes nine men and nine women, two of which will become the next people to set foot on the moon, including the first woman to ever do so.
NASA is currently in the final stages of developing their Space Launch System moon rocket in Mississippi which will make a maiden voyage around the moon in the near future. A second piloted flight is slated for 2023 before a third flight attempts to actually land on the moon with humans aboard.
The 18 astronauts that make up this newest team include nine with space flight experience and nine who have yet to fly into space. The gender diversity in the team is unprecedented, including Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who participated in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019.
Now that we have the names of the individuals who will be training for these moon missions, we are excited to see how training and planning proceeds over the coming years.
Image source: CBS News
