The NASA has presented to the first four astronauts included a woman and a Afro-American, who will crew artemis missions, with which the agency projects return to the Moon, 50 years after the Apollo projects, as well as Mars. The astronauts are American (three) and Canadian (one) nationals. Called Christina Koch, Victor Glover (the Afro-descendant), Reid Wiseman y Jeremy Hansen (the Canadian).
In a massive event held at five in the afternoon (peninsular time), at the Johnson Center of the space agency in houston led by the chief astronaut Joe Finish, the chosen ones have been announced who will venture towards the Luna on the Artemis II mission. Its launch is scheduled for the end of 2024, As confirmed in the act itself by the NASA administrator, Bill Nelson. Crew members will travel to the Moon, around it, and return to Earth in about 10 days.
It’s about the Americans Gregory R. Wiseman, as commander; the african american Victor J Glover as a pilot, and mission specialists Christina Koch, also from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen, the latter a CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut. Canada is a socio NASA leader in the development of the Artemis program.
The team will travel aboard the NASA Orion spacecraft in the first crewed flight test of the Artemis Program, the agency’s plan to establish a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface. will be the previous step to take humans to Mars in the coming decades.
The mission, of about 10 days long will put to tests the Orion ship’s life support systems, attached to the ESA service module, to demonstrate the capabilities y necessary techniques to live and work in deep space in a way that humans can, NASA reports.
Artemis II is based on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, mounted on the SLS rocket, on a journey of about 2.25 million kilometers beyond the Moon to test the systems before astronauts fly on a mission to Earth. moon surface.
Programa Artemis
He launch of this space program, driven by the great agencies of the world, It has been defined as the takeoff of a new era of space exploration. “The ‘generation Artemis’ is the one who wants to step on the moon again for the benefit of all humanity: to impulse new scientific discoveries to explore the economic potential and to inspire future space explorers” explained the general administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson. “This program is something very big. It will be the first time that Europe has landed on the moon.” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA).
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The Artemis II mission will leave Earth, it will orbit the Moon and return to its home planet. The flight will last about 10 days and, led by four astronauts, will serve to test the necessary technologies for the space travels of long distance with humans on board.
If all goes according to plan, in 2025 The most important flight of this program will take off: Artemis III the first manned lunar mission of the 21st century. More than fifty years after Neil Armstrong will forge the first human footprints in the lunar soil, the Artemis program will achieve the first footprints of a woman outside our planet. It will also be the first time a person of color star in a moonwalk. Until now, the only ones to walk on the Moon have been the 12 men, white and American of the Apollo generation.