Nasa on Monday named the four astronauts who will fly around the moon late next year, including the first woman and the first African American assigned to a lunar mission.
The first moon crew in 50 years – three Americans and one Canadian – was introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation's astronauts as well as Mission Control.The four astronauts will be the first to fly Nasa's Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024.
"This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate and it’s so much more than the four names that have been announced," Glover said. "Am I excited? Absolutely,” Koch said to cheers from the crowd of schoolchildren, politicians and others."But my real question is: ‘Are you excited?’ ” she said to more cheers.
During Apollo, Nasa sent 24 astronauts to the moon from 1968 through 1972. Twelve of them landed. All were military-trained male test pilots except for Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who closed out that moonlanding era alongside the late Gene Cernan.