NASA is sending a black woman and man to the Moon for the first time, launch planned for late 2024 | Sciences

The launch date has been tentatively set for the end of 2024. Crew members will not land on the moon itself. That should happen with the Artemis III mission, which won’t take place until 2025 at the earliest. The last time humans walked on the Moon was in 1972. By choosing a woman and a person of color, NASA is making good on its promise to bring more diversity to the exploration effort. All previous manned missions to the moon have been performed by white men.

“The Artemis II mission is the next step in the grand goal of traveling to Mars,” said Reed Wiseman, who will be the mission commander. Black American Victor Glover is the mission pilot. Koch and Hanson are the “Mission Support Specialists”. They will now begin intensive training to prepare for the mission.

look. NASA successfully launched the Artemis-I mission to the Moon late last year

The United States and Canada have been working closely together on trips to the Moon for some time. To this end, the Artemis program was established to establish a sustainable outpost on the Moon. The project’s first flight was Artemis I, which launched on November 16. The unmanned spacecraft flew to the Moon, circled it several times, and then began its return journey. On December 11, the capsule plunged into the Pacific Ocean.

At its farthest point, the spacecraft was about 270,000 miles from Earth, about a thousand times farther than the International Space Station, according to NASA. No spacecraft designed for humans has flown this far. It is now planned that the four astronauts will make approximately the same space flight.