Four, including the first female astronaut, are going on the Artemis mission

Four astronauts, including the first woman, a black person and a Canadian astronaut, are heading to the moon on the Artemis mission next year.  They are Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

 The United States Space Agency (NASA) announced their names as the crew of the 'Artemis 2' mission on Monday (3 March) in Houston, Texas. Although the purpose of the multi-satellite Artemis mission is a long-term presence on the Moon, the 4 astronauts aboard Artemis Two will not set foot on the Moon.  

Christina Hammock Koch is the only female astronaut to join the mission, NASA said. Victor Glover was the first black man to walk on the moon. In addition, Jeremy Hanson, the first Canadian pilot, is going as a mission specialist. Reid Wiseman, experienced in space walking for 13 hours, is going to be the commander of Artemis 2 mission.

"For the first time in more than 50 years, these men are going to be the first humans to fly around the Moon," Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wiech said in a statement. This mission will pave the way for human deep space exploration and present new opportunities in space for scientific discovery, commercial and academic partnerships.'

Apart from this, Vanessa called these 4 astronauts as the best of mankind.

NASA wants to return to the moon by 2025. They don't want to visit there now, they want to live there permanently. It is for this purpose that NASA successfully completed the 'Artemis 1' unmanned mission last year.

If the Artemis 2 mission also becomes successful in 2024, then in 2025, Artemis 3 will be the first mission where a woman astronaut will set step on the Moon. The previous lunar missions were named after the Greek moon god Apollo. Now that the first woman is going to set foot on the moon, the mission is named after Apollo's twin sister, Artemis. No women had been sent on previous Apollo missions.