The Artemis 2 mission will soon have its astronauts named.
NASA, together with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will soon reveal its pick of astronauts for its Artemis 2 mission less than a week away as of press time, and the wait couldn't be long enough for those looking forward to it.
NSA previously announced it would soon reveal the astronauts that will go to space through the Artemis 2 mission in early March.
The Earth is seen setting from the far side of the Moon just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this video taken on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays.
NASA Artemis 2 Astronaut Details
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson previously announced in his "State of NASA" Address that the space agency would announce the four astronauts that will go on its Artemis 2 mission on Apr. 3.
Though Nelson didn't give the identities of the astronauts outright during his address at the time, he did reveal that three of the astronauts would come from the US, and one would come from Canada. They will be the first to see the moon up-close in space since the Apollo 17 mission in Dec. 1972.
According to a Space.com article, NASA will reveal who these four astronauts are from Ellington Field in Houston, near the Kennedy Space Center. It will live stream the event, which NASA scheduled to commence on the morning of Apr. 3 at 11 AM EDT on NASA Television.
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You may remember that the Apollo 17 mission was the last time a human was on the moon, per Encyclopedia Britannica. Additionally, the Artemis 2 mission will only have the four astronauts go around the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission to put NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to the test.
While the Artemis 1 mission was uncrewed, it was like that for a reason: to test whether NASA's rocket and spacecraft are capable of bringing people at least around the moon and returning to Earth in one piece.
In place of astronauts, the Orion spacecraft brought a Shaun the Sheep plush toy along with a few other items on board the spacecraft.
NASA is currently targeting to launch its Artemis 2 mission, which it expects to last ten days, in Nov. 2024.
What's In NASA's Plans For Artemis?
Should the Artemis 2 mission be successful, NASA will proceed with Artemis 3, which NASA plans to launch in 2025; it is the definitive Artemis mission that will bring humanity back to the moon's surface.
The space agency previously announced that the Artemis 3 mission would not just bring humanity back to the moon - it would also bring the first woman and person of color to its surface.
After Artemis 3, NASA may proceed to build its Artemis Gateway lunar base with its Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment spacecraft being its foundation.
Once that's done, NASA may go even further than the moon and have humanity reach Mars for the first time in human history; deep space missions will also be possible after the Mars mission.
Related Article: NASA To Reveal Artemis 2 Astronauts in April
