Artemis II, here are the four astronauts of the mission to the Moon

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Four astronauts were presented to the public in Houston, Texas on April 3, are those ready for the next mission to the Moon: NASA’s Artemis II. Remarkable scenography, also on the net, a phone call from President Biden who speaks of the epochal importance of the mission set up by the United States and its allies in space: Canada, Europe, Japan.

The chosen ones, after a long selection, are three men and a woman, three whites and a black, three Americans and a Canadian. It is not a tongue twister, but the recipe found by NASA in order not to displease anyone and keep the promises made to repair the machismo of the Apollo missions. It seems successful: Cristina Koch will become the first female astronaut ever assigned to a lunar mission, while Victor Glover will be the first black astronaut to see our beautiful satellite up close. The two will team up with Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen for the next Artemis II mission that will take humans back to the moon after 50 plus years.

All four over 40 years old and three with great experience behind them: Cristina Koch for example has a record of 328 days in space, Reid Wiseman was even head of NASA’s astronaut office, Victor Glover was the first African American to stay on the station international space for an extended period of six months. The Canadian Jeremy Hanson remains, fighter pilot in his first space flight experience, obviously proud.

“The Artemis-2 crew represents thousands of people who work tirelessly to take us to the stars. This is the crew that represents all of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. «These astronauts each have their own story, and represent our creed: E pluribus unum – Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star navigators and dreamers: the Artemis Generation».

Delicate mission because it follows last year’s Artemis 1, without astronauts which carried the Orion capsule for the first time in a truly complex flight: 25 days from the Earth to the Moon and vice versa. The rocket that launched it, the Space Launch System, SLS, 90 meters high, has also received strong criticism from the US Congress: it is in fact largely a re-edition of the vector that carried the Space Shuttles of the 80s and 90s into orbit , Nasa has actually given up on developing a completely new rocket and on the horizon we can glimpse the inevitable Elon Musk with his mighty Starship.