NASA announces four astronauts who will fly around the moon on Artemis II mission

The four astronauts who will fly around the moon next year were announced Monday by NASA.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be the crew for Artemis II, which is currently scheduled for lift-off in November 2024.

Here’s a little bit of info about each of them:

Wiseman, 49, is a Baltimore native and former Navy pilot who will be the misson’s commander. He completed astronaut training in 2011 and spent 165 days at the International Space Station from May through November 2014. Wiseman became popular online for his social media posts during that trip. He also completed two spacewalks and numerous scientific experiments.

Glover, 46, is from Southern California and is also a former Navy pilot, who will pilot the Artemis II mission. He completed astronaut training in 2015 and spent 168 days in orbit at the ISS on a November 2020 to May 2021 mission that was handled by SpaceX. He completed four spacewalks during that mission and piloted the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Koch, 43, is a Grand Rapids, Mich., native and longtime NASA employee who got her start as an engineer. She became an astronaut in 2015. Koch is best known for being part of the first all-female spacewalks in 2019, alongside Jessica Meir. She was part of six different spacewalks during her March 2019 to February 2020 mission and spent 328 straight days in space, the most ever for a woman.

Hansen, 47, is from Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Canadian Space Agency. He will become the first Canadian on a moon mission. Hansen is also a former fighter pilot who completed astronaut training in 2011. The Artemis II mission, which will not land on the moon but will orbit it, will be Hansen’s first trip to space.

NASA completed Artemis I, an uncrewed mission to test new technology, in December 2022. The new series of moon missions is named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister and aims to put the first woman and first person of color on the moon.