Four astronauts could soon board a spacecraft for NASA's first human moon mission in more than 50 years, during which they are due to fly farther than any deep-space explorers before them.
Traveling up to 6,000 miles beyond the lunar surface, the crew of a mission known as Artemis 2 will see parts of the far side of the moon that not even the Apollo astronauts witnessed.
And along the way, three of the four astronauts will break the spacefaring mold. Among the Artemis 2 crew will be the first Black man, the first woman and the first Canadian to ever fly on a moon mission.
While the astronauts won't be landing on the moon during the 10-day journey, their mission will prove crucial in paving the way for humans to set foot on the surface as early as 2028 under NASA's multibillion-dollar Artemis program. When they launch, they'll be the first astronauts to fly aboard the space agency's Orion capsule, which will hitch a ride to orbit atop the towering Space Launch System.
Ahead of the Artemis 2 rocket launch, meet the astronauts selected for the mission, targeted for liftoff Wednesday, April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
