The Moon...& then Mars

NASA team for first lunar mission in 50 years

- SEAN MURPHY

THE world is to witness the first lunar mission in 50 years - with four astronauts handpicked to orbit the moon within months before a 2026 landing.

NASA unveiled the team that includes Christina Koch, 44, the first female ever assigned to a US lunar mission, while Victor Glover, 46, will be the first black astronaut to go to the moon, and Jeremy Hansen, 47, of the Canadian Space Agency will be the first non-American sent by NASA.

Glover said: "We need to celebrate this moment in human history. Artemis II is more than a mission to the moon and back. It is a mission that has to happen before we send people back to the surface of the moon.This is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars.

He and the others will join mission commander Reid Wiseman, 47, on the Artemis II mission that will fly around the moon next year or early 2025 to pave the way for a touchdown in 2026 or later.

They will carry out a mission similar to Apollo 8 in 1968 when astronauts were sent to the moon in advance of Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong's historic moonwalk on July 21, 1969.