WASHINGTON: The four astronauts selected for the Artemis 2 Moon mission will be the first to travel there in more than five decades.
In doing so, they will become the new faces of American space exploration.
Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch will make the voyage with their Canadian colleague Jeremy Hansen, and are now preparing to take off as soon as Apr 1.
The journey, set to last around 10 days, will take the astronauts on a loop around the Moon, though they will not land on its surface.
The crew comprises the first woman, the first person of colour, and the first non-American to take part in such a journey.
Those are key differences from the Apollo era, which included the first and to this day the only humans to travel to the Moon.
Here is a closer look at the crew:
REID WISEMAN
At 50 years old, Reid Wiseman is the mission’s commander.
The native of Baltimore joined NASA in 2009 following a 27-year career in the US Navy.
“I never thought I’d be an astronaut,” he said on a NASA podcast. “I mean, come on, it’s like an unobtainable dream.”
Until it’s not: in 2014, Wiseman traveled to space for a 165-day mission aboard the International Space Station, and later served as NASA’s chief of the astronaut office.
After losing his wife to cancer in 2020, he raised his two daughters – now teenagers – on his own.
In January, he said he aimed for transparency in explaining to them the inherent risks of his career and his coming journey.
“I told them, ‘here’s where the will is, here’s where the trust documents are,'” he said. “And if anything happens to me, here’s what’s going to happen to you.”
“And that’s just that is a part of this life.”