Blastoff: NASA’s Newest Astronauts

For the first time in over 50 years, NASA is planning to carry out a crewed moon mission, set to begin in November 2024. This mission, titled the Artemis II mission will be a revolutionary follower to Artemis I. Artemis I was a crewless test mission in which NASA sent their Orion capsule on a 1.4-million-mile trip around the moon to gather data for space research. The Artemis II mission is expected to be a 10-day long extravaganza where the four new chosen astronauts will explore terrains that have never been touched by the human eye in the moon, and beyond. After the trip concludes, the spacecraft housing the astronauts will land in the Pacific Ocean.

Meet the crew:

Reid Wiseman

Wiseman, who is a 47-year-old naval aviator and pilot, has been affiliated with NASA since 2009. Some of his accomplishments include a trip to space, contributions to the launching of a Russian Soyuz rocket in 2014, and holding the position of chief of the astronaut office, which he stepped down from in late 2022. Reid Wiseman is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.

Jeremy Hansen

Hansen, who is also 47 years old, is a Canadian fighter pilot who began the process of astronaut training in 2009. He will soon become the first Canadian to travel to deep space, and he recently became the first Canadian to be put in charge of training a class of new NASA astronauts.

Victor Glover

Glover, who is 46 years old, is a naval aviator, who served in many military squads in the U.S. along with Japan in the 2000s and became a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to his experience with the military, he has also been on multiple SpaceX missions, his first being a 6-month stay at the International Space Station. Glover is originally from Pomona, California.

Christina Kosh

Kosh, who is 44 years old, is a highly experienced veteran of six different space trips. One of those spacewalks was the first all-female crewed walk in 2019. Koch is an electrical engineer who assisted in the development of scientific equipment that has been used for many NASA missions. In preparation for the moon mission, Kosh spent a year in the South Pole to simulate the intense conditions of the mission. Kosh is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan.