Diversity is always a pleasure to witness, which is why this recent announcement by NASA is causing such excitement. The aeronautics and space organization has released information about the members of their Artemis II moon crew. It consists of 3 men and a woman. Not only is it the first moon expedition in 50 years that has a woman on the team, but also a lunar mission which consists of an African American astronaut, for the first time.
NASA and the President of the United States shared the news with posts showing each of the members.
The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, will be joined by Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator, and Jeremy Hansen, a Royal Canadian Air Force colonel and first Canadian ever chosen for a journey to the moon.
The expedition will be a 10-day, 1.4-million-mile (2.3-million-km) journey around the moon and back, and its objective is to exhibit that all of Orion’s life-support apparatus and other systems will operate as designed with astronauts aboard in deep space.
If Artemis II turns out to be a success, NASA plans to carry out the programs’ first lunar landing of astronauts, a few years later.