The Artemis II Astronauts Are Set to Make History While Orbiting the Moon

It's been more than 50 years since man first walked on the moon, and now, NASA is getting ready to send another spacecraft back up there. As the launch gets underway on April 1, many who are learning more about the mission want to better understand who is being sent up there.

The crew of the Artemis II is set to make a lot of history on their 10-day mission. Here's what we know about the astronauts who are part of the crew.

The Artemis II will be crewed by four astronauts, including NASA’s Reid Wiseman, a Navy test pilot and single father who will serve as commander, Christina Koch, an engineer and astronaut who will become the first woman to venture beyond Earth orbit, Victor Glover, a naval test pilot who is set to become the first Black person to travel to deep space, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, a fighter pilot who will be the first non-NASA astronaut to join a lunar mission.

Because the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moon were composed entirely of white men, this crew is breaking a lot of ground, even though their mission is not going to involve actually landing on the moon.

Artemis II is coming four years after Artemis I, an unmanned spacecraft, was sent to orbit around the moon for 25 days. The goal of Artemis II is to test a whole swath of new capabilities.

“Now, with our four humans on board, we’ll be testing out a lot of new capabilities that were not there for Artemis I,” a spokesperson told CNN. “For example, we need to keep the vehicle thermally stable, because humans need to be comfortable. But when you add people to a spacecraft, you add a lot of moisture to the air, too. They also need food. They need water. They need toilets. We have also have some exercise devices on Orion this time that we’re going to be testing.”

Artemis II is set to launch at 6:24 p.m. EDT on April 1. That's actually just the beginning of the potential launch window, which will be open for two hours. If the launch has to be scrubbed or conditions don't look optimal, NASA has selected backup launch days later in April. As of right now, though, the plan is to launch on April Fool's Day.

The ship is named after the Greek goddess of hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, and childbirth, among other things. As the Apollo missions suggest, NASA has an affinity for name its missions after ancient religious figures.

In this case, given the nature of the mission, the wilderness and nature seem like the most applicable. Ultimately, though, Artemis also just sounds pretty cool, and that might have been part of the reason that the scientists at NASA went with it.