Artemis II: Meet the Crew

🚀 Artemis II Moon launch nears

🧑‍🚀 Meet Astronaut Reid Wiseman

🛰️ Victor Glover's space journey

👩‍🚀 Christina Koch's astronaut profile

🇨🇦 Jeremy Hansen's biography highlights

Launch teams at Kennedy Space Center are completing final preparations for Artemis II, humanity's first crewed lunar voyage in over 50 years. The SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, nicknamed Integrity, are set for liftoff at 6:24 p.m. EDT today.

The approximately 10-day mission sends four astronauts looping around the Moon aboard Orion, testing life-support systems, radiation shielding, and deep-space capabilities. The crew may travel 245,000 miles from Earth, potentially surpassing the Apollo 13 distance record.

Weather forecasts show an 80% chance of favorable conditions at launch time. Today isn't just a launch, it's the moment an entire generation has been waiting for, the opening act of a new era of lunar exploration.

Reid Wiseman is a 27-year Navy veteran, retired Captain, test pilot, and Baltimore native selected as an astronaut in 2009. Today he commands Artemis II, leading the first crewed Moon mission in over half a century.

He previously spent 165 days aboard the ISS on Expedition 40/41, completed over 300 scientific experiments and two spacewalks, and flew F-14 Tomcats on combat deployments before serving as a test pilot on the F-35 Lightning II.

A father who raised two children as an only parent after the passing of his wife Carroll, Wiseman says: "I think the nation and the world has been waiting a long time to do this again."

Victor Glover is an active-duty Navy Captain, Naval Aviator, and test pilot with 3,500+ flight hours across 40 aircraft and 24 combat missions. He was selected as an astronaut in 2013 while serving as a U.S. Senate Legislative Fellow.

Glover piloted the Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, to the International Space Station, spent 168 days in space during Expedition 64/65, completed four spacewalks, and holds three master's degrees in engineering, systems engineering, and military science.

Glover commented on the Artemis II mission patch highlighting "A II" reads as the word "All" — because "we want everybody to be a part of this mission." Today this Pomona, California native and father of four flies to the Moon.

Christina Koch is an engineer, explorer, and NASA astronaut who today becomes the first woman ever to fly to the Moon. She earned dual degrees in electrical engineering and physics plus a master's from NC State, which later awarded her an honorary PhD.

She holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, 328 consecutive days aboard the ISS, and conducted six spacewalks totaling 42 hours and 15 minutes, including the first all-female spacewalk during Expedition 61.

Before NASA, Koch spent a year wintering over at the South Pole, worked at Palmer Station in Antarctica, Greenland's Summit Station, and the American Samoa Observatory, making her uniquely prepared for extreme, long-duration missions like Artemis II.

Colonel Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency today becomes the first Canadian to venture to the Moon. Raised on a farm near Ailsa Craig, Ontario, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets at 12, earned his glider wings at 16, and his pilot license at 17.

A CF-18 fighter pilot with NORAD and Arctic operations experience, Hansen holds a Bachelor's in Space Science and a Master's in Physics from Royal Military College. He trained in ESA's CAVES underground program and NASA's NEEMO 19 undersea mission.

In 2017 he became the first Canadian ever entrusted with leading a NASA astronaut class, a testament to his leadership and Canada's deepening role in lunar exploration. Today, a farm kid from Ontario rides a rocket to the Moon.