NASA officially announced the four-member crew for its Artemis II mission on April 3, 2023, marking a significant step toward returning humans to the Moon. The mission will see astronauts orbit the Moon, traveling farther into space than any human since the Apollo era in the early 1970s. This flight, targeted for late 2024, is a critical test of the Orion spacecraft and its systems with a human crew aboard, preceding future lunar landings.

The crew comprises Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch, all from NASA, alongside Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who will serve as Mission Specialist 2. The approximately 10-day mission will not land on the lunar surface but will perform a flyby around the Moon, journeying approximately 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth before returning.

Artemis II is the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program, building on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I mission in late 2022, which saw the Orion capsule successfully complete a circumlunar journey and splashdown. The primary objectives of Artemis II are to verify Orion's life support systems, communications, and navigation capabilities in a deep-space environment, as well as to test critical re-entry procedures that are essential for future lunar surface missions. The mission will utilize NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to propel the Orion spacecraft and its crew.

The selected astronauts bring extensive experience to the mission:

  • Reid Wiseman (Commander): A veteran of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 41, Wiseman has spent 165 days in space and completed two spacewalks.
  • Victor Glover (Pilot): Glover previously served as pilot of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, spending 168 days aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 64.
  • Christina Koch (Mission Specialist 1): Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, with 328 days in space across ISS Expeditions 59-61, and participated in the first all-female spacewalk.
  • Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist 2): As the first Canadian to be assigned to a lunar mission, Hansen was selected as an astronaut in 2009 and has undergone extensive training.

The successful completion of Artemis II is paramount for paving the way for Artemis III, which aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon, specifically in the lunar south polar region, as early as 2025. This series of missions forms part of a broader strategy to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon and leverage lunar exploration as a stepping stone for future human missions to Mars.