Vice President Mike Pence unveiled Wednesday “the Artemis generation,” a group of 18 astronauts who will be launching a return mission to the moon in a few years.
The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon at the National Space Council at Cape Canaveral, Fla., according to video coverage of the in-person event from C-SPAN.
“My fellow Americans, I give you the heroes of the future who’ll carry us back to the Moon and beyond – the Artemis generation,” said Pence in introducing the Artemis team.
The group unveiled on Wednesday accounts for roughly more than a third of the NASA Astronaut Corps. Nine of its members are women.
NASA’s $28 million Artemis program aims to do further research and exploration on the lunar landscape and will also make history by landing the first woman astronaut on the moon.
Though 18 members are named to the program, not all will land on the face of the moon. Two of the members, Victor Glover and Kate Rubins, are currently orbiting aboard the International Space Station.
Artemis I is slated for launch in 2021 and will include two test flights around the moon in unoccupied vessels, according to a NASA webpage.
Artemis II will launch in 2023 with astronauts on board, and Artemis III will bring astronauts back to the moon’s surface in 2024, the first time since 1972.
Pence also announced Wednesday the renaming of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.