The first woman and black man to walk on the
moon:
'This will be the start of a new era of space exploration
The
American space agency NASA has released the names of the four astronauts who
will be part of the moon mission for the first time in 50 years.
Christina
Cook will be the first female astronaut to travel to the moon, while Victor
Glover will be the first black astronaut to do so.
They will
be accompanied by Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Henson and the four astronauts are
scheduled to fly a capsule (spacecraft) around the moon in early 2025.
Although
landing on the moon is not included in this mission, the purpose of this
mission is to make it easier for astronauts to land on the moon in future
trips.
NASA
announced these names during a public event in Houston, Texas. Three Americans
and one Canadian citizen are participating in this mission.
Now the
intensive training phase of these astronauts will begin in which they will be
prepared for this mission.
NASA says
the selection of a woman and a non-white person is aimed at diversifying space
exploration. Only white crews were selected in previous missions to the moon.
Reid
Wiseman (age 47): U.S. Navy pilot who served for a time as chief of the
astronaut office at NASA. He has previously made a space visit to the
International Space Station once in 2015.
Victor Glover (age 46): US Navy test pilot. His first space voyage took place in 2020 after he joined NASA in 2013. He was the first African-American to live on the space station for an extended period of six months.
Christina
Cook (age 44): An electrical engineer. She spent 328 consecutive days in space
and this is the record for the longest time spent in space by a woman. In
October 2019, Christina was accompanied by NASA astronaut Jessica Meyer on the first-ever
all-female mission to space.
Jeremy
Hanson (age 47): He was a fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force before
joining the Canadian Space Agency. This will be their first flight into space.
Bill
Nelson, a NASA employee, said at the event that "the Artemis Two crew
represents the thousands of people who work hard to take us to the stars."
This is their staff, this is our staff, this is the staff of all humanity.
Each astronaut from NASA, including CSA (Canadian) pilot Jeremy Hansen, Christina Cook, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, has a unique story to tell. But together they represent our faith: one person among many. Together, they will usher in a new age of space exploration by The Artemis Generation, a group of astronauts and aspirants.
Wiseman
will be the mission's commander, Glover will be its pilot, while cook and
Hanson will serve as 'mission specialists'.
The four
astronauts will repeat the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, which was the first
successful mission to reach the Moon.
He took
that particular picture of the earth from the moon in which the earth can be
seen emerging from darkness to light.
But the
difference this time will be that NASA will use advanced 21st-century
technology developed under the Artemis program. Artemis was Apollo's identical
twin sister in Greek mythology.
Last year,
NASA tested a new moon rocket called the Space Launch System. The capsule
attached to it (in which the crew will ride) is called Orion.
The Artemis
One mission orbited the Moon for 25 days after leaving Earth, but the mission
did not have a crew. Through this, the engineers evaluated the performance of
these advanced devices.
Now the new
astronauts aboard Orion will begin the mission of Artemis II. It will take them
about 10 days to reach the moon and back.
In December
1972, humans traveled to the moon for the last time with Apollo 17. In 1969,
astronauts made their first moon landing.
The first
mission to land on the moon in the new era, Artemis III, will not be possible
for at least 12 months after Artemis II.
