Nasa to announce astronaut crew for Artemis Moon mission in April

Mission will carry a human crew around the Moon

The names of astronauts who will be part of the first crewed Moon mission since the Apollo era will be announced in April, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said on Thursday.

The American space agency is planning for a launch in November, 2024, for the nearly 10-day-long lunar flyby mission.

The mission will carry a human crew around the Moon, and in the following Artemis III, humans will land again on the Moon for the first time since the 1970s.

“On April the third, we will announce the crew for the first mission back to the moon in over a half century,” Mr Nelson said, adding that the crew would include three astronauts from America and one from Canada.

Last year, Nasa launched an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit and back in a 25-day mission as part of the Artemis I programme to test its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The SLS rocket is the most powerful rocket to ever fly standing nearly 100m tall (323ft) and generating 8.8 million pounds of thrust.

In December, the Orion capsule returned following its trip around the moon to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico bringing a dramatic close to the Artemis I mission.

“It’s historic because we are now going back into space, into deep space, with a new generation... it is one that marks new technology, a whole new breed of astronaut,” Mr Nelson said.

Artemis II will take a four-person crew around the Moon without landing on it.

If the Artemis II mission slated for November 2024 goes well, Nasa would then land a crew on the Moon, including the first woman and the first person of color to set foot on the lunar surface.

With the Artemis missions, Nasa hopes to pave the way for a lasting human presence on the Moon and to help set a base for further space exploration, including crewed missions to Mars.

Nasa will unveil prototype next-generation spacesuits that astronauts will wear on the Moon on 15 March, Mr Nelson said.

“New technology is key for us to explore deep space and the President has increased Nasa’s space technology research up to 1.4 billion dollars,” he added.