March 10 () –
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will announce on April 3 the four astronauts who will venture to the vicinity of the Moon on the Artemis II mission, scheduled for the end of 2024.
The astronauts –three Americans and one Canadian– will travel aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft in the first crewed flight test of the Artemis Program, the agency’s plan to establish a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.
The mission, of approximately 10 days duration, will test the life support systems of the Orion spacecraft, attached to the ESA service module, to demonstrate the capabilities and techniques necessary to live and work in deep space in a way that only humans can, reports NASA.
Artemis II is based on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, mounted on the SLS rocket, on a journey of about 2.25 million kilometers beyond the Moon to test the systems before astronauts fly aboard the systems on a mission to the Moon.
