NASA Names 18 Astronauts Including 9 Women For Artemis Moon; Mission Aims To Land First Woman On Moon

NASA has announced the names of 18 astronauts who will train for it’s Artemis moon landing programme. Out of these 18 astronauts, 9 are women, and one of them will become the first woman to land on the moon. The announcement was made by Vice-President Mike Pence on Wednesday at the close of his final meeting as chairman of the National Space Council.

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While introducing the 18 astronauts, Pence said that the last of the 12 men to walk on the moon, Gene Carnan, who’s final lunar footsteps were on Dec. 14, 1972, only wanted to remove the “last” from his name. He further added, “He spent the rest of his natural life advocating for America to go back to the moon, and we are going to honor Gene Cernan’s memory," as quoted by Republic. 

The nine selected women astronauts include Kate Rubins, Christina Koch, Jessica Meir, Anne McClain, Stephanie Wilson, Nicole Mann, Kayla Barron, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Jessica Watkins. However, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that “ there’s going to be more” astronauts who might be added to the list, as reported by Space.

Astronaut Kate Rubins became the first scientist to sequence DNA in orbit during her last flight in 2016. She was selected in the astronaut class of 2009. Christina Koch has spent 328 days in space in the second-longest single flight by an American astronaut in 2019-2020. During her time in orbit, she participated in six spacewalks out of which three were with colleague Jessica Meir which also were the first all-women spacewalks.

Jessica Meir has made one spaceflight during 2019-2020, she was selected from the 2013 astronaut class. After learning about the announcement she said, “ To us, it isn't really a personal achievement for us, it is paying homage and tribute to the generations of women and other minorities that really were the boundary-pushers that truly broke those glass ceilings to let us be here today," Meir said. "The great thing for us now is it just seems normal: We're all going to go together to the moon.

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Anne McClain was also selected from the batch of 2013. She has completed two space flights between 2018 and 2019. Before joining NASA, McClain served in the army. Stephanie Wilson is the longest-serving astronaut among the cadre, she was selected in 1996 and made three flights on space shuttle missions. Four women astronauts out of the nine have never flown to space, the four include Nicole Mann, Kayla Barron, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Jessica Watkins.

The space agency is planning the moon landing in 2024. However, the decision of who exactly will go and when remains unclear mostly because the new Biden government may slow down that timeline or redirect the agency entirely

Arunima Sharma is an intern with SheThePeople.TV