The POT and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced this Monday, April 3, the four astronauts who will undertake a trip around the Moon aboard Artemis II.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch, and their CSA colleague Jeremy Hansen they were chosen for “the beginning of a new era of exploration for a new generation of navigators and stellar dreamers, the Artemis Generation”, as Bill Nelson, administrator of the US space agency, put it.
The Artemis II flight test, which will last about 10 days, will be launched aboard NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket to demonstrate the life support systems of the Orion spacecraft and validate the capabilities and techniques necessary for humans to live and work in deep space.
The crew designations are as follows: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen. Next, we detail the feats and achievements of each one.
reid wiseman
This will be Wiseman’s second trip to space, after previously serving as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41, from May to November 2014.
Wiseman has logged more than 165 days in space, including nearly 13 hours as spacewalk leader during two excursions outside the orbital complex. Prior to his appointment, Wiseman served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from December 2020 to November 2022.
victor glover
This mission will be the second spaceflight for Glover, who previously served as a pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew 1 mission, which landed on May 2, 2021, after 168 days in space. As a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 64, Glover contributed to scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, and participated in four spacewalks.
Christina Hammock-Koch
Koch will also make his second flight into space aboard the Artemis II mission. She served as a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61. Koch set a record for the longest individual spaceflight by a woman, totaling 328 days in space, and participated in the First all-female spacewalks. She could become the first woman to go to the Moon.
Jeremy Hanson
Representing Canada, this will be Hansen’s first flight into space. A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and former fighter pilot, Hansen has a BS in space sciences from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, and an MS in physics from the same institution in 2000, with a research specialization at the Wide field of view for satellite tracking.
He was one of two recruits selected by the CSA in May 2009 through the third Canadian Astronaut Recruitment Drive; has served as Capsule Communicator (Capcom) at NASA Mission Control Center at the Johnson Center and, in 2017, became the first Canadian to hold a NASA Astronaut Chair, directing training of astronaut candidates from the United States and Canada.