NASA set to reveal crew who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II

Building on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, NASA has set its sights on an even more ambitious goat - to send four astronauts around the Moon by 2024 as part of the Artemis II mission. The agency, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will reveal during the April 3 event the names of four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II.

The event will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website.

Get ready – on April 3 @NASA will announce the first #Artemis astronauts who will orbit the Moon. These four star-sailors will fly on Artemis II, representing the next giant leap toward long-term exploration and discovery on the Moon: https://t.co/Ray4tJyBzF pic.twitter.com/e9hdbX3a6U

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) March 10, 2023

Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will propel the crew, comprising three NASA astronauts and one CSA astronaut, to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

During this mission, the crew will journey 6,400 miles beyond the far side of the Moon, from where they will be able to view the Earth and Moon through the windows of Orion spacecraft.

The Artemis II mission, which is expected to last just over 10 days, will test and stress the spacecraft's life-support systems to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and work in deep space in ways only humans can do, paving the way to land the first woman and next man on the Moon on Artemis III and future missions to worlds beyond, including Mars.

In September 2022, NASA launched an uncrewed Orion atop the SLS rocket on a 1.4 million-mile journey beyond the Moon to test all systems before flying astronauts to the Moon.