NASA on Monday will introduce four astronauts who are headed to the moon. The four — three Americans and one Canadian — will be the crew of Artemis II, a 10-day mission occurring no earlier than the end of 2024 that will travel around the moon before heading back to Earth.
The crew will join the pantheon of American astronauts who have visited the moon from 1968 to 1972 during the Apollo era. Here’s what you need to know about the announcement on Monday.
When is the announcement and how can I watch it?
NASA will present the four astronauts to the world from Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The agency will stream the announcement live on NASA TV and on its YouTube channel.
What is Artemis II?
NASA astronauts departed from the moon for the last time in December 1972 as they completed the Apollo 17 mission. Since then, a return to the moon has been discussed several times. The Trump administration focused its efforts on an initiative that was named the Artemis program, which President Biden has continued since he entered the White House.
Last November, NASA launched the Artemis I mission, a test of the massive Space Launch System rocket and an uncrewed Orion capsule. That set up Artemis II, the first of NASA’s new missions to the moon with astronauts aboard. It will not launch until at least November 2024.
Riding in an Orion capsule, the astronauts will travel on an elliptical orbit that loops as far out as 1,800 miles above Earth, giving the astronauts time to see how Orion’s systems work. It will then travel toward the moon, using its gravity to sling back to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The entire trip should take around 10 days.
Who are the astronauts?
There are currently 41 astronauts regarded as active at NASA. It is from this group that the agency is choosing three of the astronauts who will get to travel to the moon during the Artemis II mission.
The fourth one will be an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, which has four active astronauts.
Three active NASA astronauts are not eligible for Artemis II because they are currently aboard the International Space Station, and others are busy getting ready for upcoming assignments there. But if those astronauts remain in the corps after returning home, they, others not named to Artemis II and future candidates could have a shot at joining the crew of Artemis III. Two of the astronauts on that mission, which is scheduled for no earlier than 2025, will land on the moon.
Why is NASA going back to the moon?
NASA officials argue that the moon missions are central to its human spaceflight program — not simply a do-over of the Apollo lunar journeys from 1968 to 1972.
By mastering longer missions on the moon, they say, NASA astronauts will be preparing for journeys to Mars. NASA is also hoping to jump-start companies looking to set up a steady business of flying scientific instruments and other payloads to the moon.
