NASA has officially announced the first team of American astronauts to travel to the moon as part of the Artemis program. The announcement was made during a meeting of the National Space Council, which was held at the Kennedy Space Center. The meeting was chaired by Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States. Recall that NASA’s Artemis program aims to send humans to the moon by 2024.

Space Agency Program Participants: Joe Aqaba, Kayla Barron, Raja Chars, Matthew Dominic, Victor Glover, Warren Hoburg, Johnny Kim, Christina Koch, Kiel Lindgren, Nicole Mann, Anne McLain, Jessica Meyer, Jasmine K. Fr. Calls Scott Tingle, Jessica Watkin and Stephanie Wilson the first generation of the Artemis program.

Most of the program participants have already spent time on the International Space Station. For example, Victor Glover is still on the space station – after SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft’s first successful manned flight. However, almost half of the named team has not yet flown into space.

The first mission, Artemis 1, involves sending an empty Orion capsule to the moon in 2021. The next mission is manned Artemis 2. It is scheduled for 2023 and includes a flight to the moon and then a return to Earth. And the first landing mission – Artemis 3 is scheduled for October 2024. We should also keep in mind that based on the technical data, all of the above mentioned dates are likely to change.

Source: Futurism