The four astronauts who will travel to the moon, maybe next year, will soon be made public by NASA.
But, the Orion spacecraft of the Artemis II mission won’t make a lunar landing. Instead, it will conduct a close fly past as part of a test trip to put all of the equipment aboard NASA’s new crew capsule to the test.
The space agency is already quite confident in Orion’s capabilities because, as part of Artemis I last year, the spacecraft completed a round-trip lunar mission without a crew.
The Orion and its four astronaut crew will travel on the Artemis II mission just 80 miles off the surface of the moon before returning to Earth.
Humans will be transported by Artemis II farther than ever before, 270,000 miles from our planet. In addition to earning a spot in history, the crew will also have an amazing view of Earth with the moon standing between them and the so-called “blue marble” that we call home.
As “the first crewed flight test and a crucial step towards establishing a long-term human presence on the moon,” NASA described the Artemis II mission.
The Artemis III mission, which is presently scheduled for 2025, is even more audacious than Artemis II and will bring people back to the lunar surface.
How to watch the big reveal
The four astronauts who will go to the moon as part of the Artemis II mission, which is planned for November of next year, will be unveiled by NASA on Monday, April 3.
At a special event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will announce the three NASA astronauts and one CSA astronaut.
