Half-century in the making: Meet the crew who will fly around the moon

Over 50 years have passed since humans from the planet Earth last voyaged to the moon. Much has changed in that time. Now, the next step in the NASA-led Artemis return to the moon program has four human faces. NASA recently announced the crew that will fly around the moon on the mission of Artemis II planned for late 2024 — one of the two planned, the other being the private Dear Moon flight.

The crew of Artemis II includes Reid Wiseman, the crew’s commander; Victor Glover, pilot; and Christina Koch, mission specialist — who are all NASA space veterans — as well as Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist, space rookie and Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

The technical purpose of Artemis II is to test all of the spacecraft systems, first in a high-Earth orbit, then around the moon before returning to Earth. It is the equivalent of the Apollo 8 mission, which tested a number of systems in advance of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Artemis II will be the prelude for Artemis III, the first crewed lunar landing in many decades.

Artemis II has a political dimension as well. On the surface, the fact that no political dissension exists concerning the flight is remarkable. Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) were present at the announcement to lend their support, any disagreement on other issues was left at the door.  

By an interesting coincidence, Artemis II is scheduled to fly at the end of 2024, an election year that is likely to be contentious and to leave many people angry and disappointed. The parallels to 1968 and Apollo 8 are obvious.

In 1968, it was as if Pandora’s Box had released a series of horrors that afflicted the world with war, civil strife, political assassinations and political acrimony. Apollo 8 represented hope, flying last out of the box, to show the people of Earth that, despite all of the evil in the world, humans were still capable of doing heroic and beautiful deeds.

Will Artemis II provide the same degree of hope for people living in 2024? One would have to be unconscious not to recognize that the past few years have been rough ones. The flight of a crew of humans around the moon would be a reminder that not everything is dire and depressing in the third decade of the 21st century.

Some have noticed that the crew of Artemis II is more diverse than that of Apollo 8, consisting of three men  — one white American, one African American and one Canadian — as well as a white American woman. The diversity angle is not as significant as the fact that each of the astronauts are as qualified to voyage to the moon as were Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders in their day.­ But many people value diversity in all things, and at least it provides representation for some groups who have been marginalized. 

Artemis II, unlike the Apollo missions to the moon, is a joint, international voyage of exploration. As with Artemis I, other countries are providing components, such as the European Space Agency with the Orion spacecraft service module. Also, Hansen will make his native Canada the second country to have one of its citizens voyage into deep space, beyond low-Earth orbit. The sense of shared pride that the people of Canada will feel about one of their native sons flying around the moon will be beyond evaluation. The signal that Artemis II will send to other countries will be that their sons and daughters can fly to the moon as well. The United States will garner a great deal of soft political power as a result.

Artemis II, as magnificent as it will be, is just a prelude to the main event. As soon as 2025, human beings from the planet Earth will walk on the moon with the Artemis III mission. After two false starts, this time the return to the moon is really going to happen. It will be a turning point in the history of human civilization, with incalculable benefits both tangible and intangible. The return to the moon, with the science to be discovered and the wealth to be won, will make life on Earth better.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of space exploration studies “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.