CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The four astronauts making NASA’s next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the Apollo era.
The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. This first Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian, products of a more diversified astronaut corps.
None of them were alive during NASA’s storied Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts to the moon including 12 moonwalkers. They won’t land on the moon this time or even orbit it, but the out-and-back journey will take them thousands of miles deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts ventured, promising unprecedented views of the lunar far side.
Here’s a look at the Artemis astronauts whose mission aims to pave the path for future moon landings:
Commander Reid Wiseman
Leading the nearly 10-day mission is a widower who considers solo parenting — not rocketing to the moon — his biggest and most rewarding challenge.
Wiseman, 50, a retired Navy captain from Baltimore, was serving as NASA’s chief astronaut when asked three years ago to lead humanity’s first lunar trip since 1972. His wife Carroll’s death from cancer in 2020 gave him pause.
He’d spent more than five months at the International Space Station in 2014, and his two teenage daughters, especially the older one, had “zero interest” in him launching again.
“We talked about it and I said, ‘Look, of all the people on planet Earth right now, there are four people that are in a position to go fly around the moon,” he said. “I cannot say no to that opportunity.”
The next day, homemade moon cupcakes awaited him, along with his daughters’ support. The toughest part isn’t leaving them — “it’s the stress that I’m putting on them,” he said.
Open with his daughters about everything, he recently told them where he keeps his will.
Pilot Victor Glover
As one of NASA’s few Black astronauts, Glover sees his presence on the mission as “a force for good.”
The 49-year-old Navy captain and former combat pilot from Pomona, California, makes it a habit to listen to Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon” and Marvin Gaye’s “Make Me Wanna Holler” from the white-dominated Apollo era.
“I listen to those for perspective,” he said. “It captures what we did well, what we did poorly.”
The ability for him now to offer hope to others is “an amazing blessing and a privilege.” Despite having one spaceflight behind him — an early SpaceX crew run to the International Space Station — he finds himself in new personal territory. His four daughters are in their late teens and early 20s, “and I spend as an much time and thought preparing them as NASA does preparing me.”
He’s hyper-focused on running “our best race so that we can hand the baton off to the next leg” — a 2027 practice docking mission in orbit around Earth between an Orion crew capsule and one or two lunar landers. The all-important moon landing would follow in 2028 with yet another set of astronauts.
Mission specialist Christina Koch
The last time Koch blasted into space, she was gone almost a year, so she’s not sweating a quick trip to the moon and back.
The 47-year-old electrical engineer from Jacksonville, North Carolina, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman — 328 days. She took part in the first all-female spacewalk during her lengthy stay at the space station in 2019.
More than any one individual, “it’s about celebrating the fact that we’ve arrived to this place in history” where women can fly to the moon, she said.
Before she got called up by NASA, Koch spent a year at a South Pole research station. Between that and her space stint, she feels she’s “inoculated” most of her family and friends.
“So far, I haven’t gotten too many nerves from folks. Maybe my dog, but I’ve reassured her that it’s only 10 days. It’s not going to be as long as last time.”
Her and her husband’s rescue pooch is named Sadie Lou.
Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen
The Canadian fighter pilot and physicist is making his space debut, stressful enough, but also serving as his country’s first emissary to the moon.
“Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pressure.”
Hansen, 50, grew up on a farm near London, Ontario, before moving to Ingersoll and pursuing a flying career. The Canadian Space Agency selected him as an astronaut in 2009, and he was named to the Artemis crew in 2023.
He realizes only now how much effort it took to send men to the moon during Apollo.
“When I walk out and I look at the moon now, it looks and feels a little bit farther than it used to be,” he said. “I just understand in the details how much harder it is than I thought it was watching videos of it.”
Dangers still loom — something he’s shared with his college-aged son and twin daughters. “The most likely outcome is that we will come back safe. There’s a chance we won’t, and you will be able to move through life even if that happens,” he assured them.
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