NASA has announced the 18 men and women who will form its Artemis Team and “help pave the way for the next astronaut mission on and around the Moon.”
Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday introduced the next generation of space travelers, including Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who performed NASA’s first all-female spacewalk in 2019.
“I give you the heroes who will carry us to the Moon and beyond—the Artemis Generation,” Pence said during this week’s National Space Council meeting. “The Artemis Team astronauts are the future of American space exploration—and that future is bright.”
NASA’s lunar exploration program, authorized in 2017, will land the first woman and next man on Earth’s satellite in 2024, and help to establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade. Artemis missions begin next year with the US space agency’s commercial partners.
“There is so much exciting work ahead of us as we return to the Moon, and it will take the entire astronaut corps to make that happen,” Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester said in a statement. “Walking on the lunar surface would be a dream come true for any one of us, and any part we can play in making that happen is an honor. I am proud of this particular group of men and women and know that any of them would do an outstanding job representing NASA and the United States on a future Artemis mission.”
The Artemis Team members are:
- Joseph Acaba (NASA class of 2004): Acaba has spent 306 days in space and performed three spacewalks. He previously taught high school science and middle school math and science.
- Kayla Barron (2017): Barron was a member of the first class of women commissioned into the submarine community. She is a lieutenant commander in the US Navy.
- Raja Chari (2017): Chari is a colonel in the US Air Force.
- Matthew Dominick (2017): Dominick was a developmental test pilot specializing in aircraft carrier launches and landings.
- Victor Glover (2013): Glover piloted the Crew-1 Dragon Resilience and is currently serving as an Expedition 64 flight engineer aboard the International Space Station.
- Warren Hoburg (2017): Hoburg was an assistant professor at MIT and a season member of the Yosemite Search and Rescue team.
- Jonny Kim (2017): Kim is a Navy SEAL with a doctorate in medicine.
- Christina Hammock Koch (2013): Koch holds the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days in space) and has performed six spacewalks.
- Kjell Lindgren (2009): Lindgren spent 141 days in space and performed two spacewalks. He previously served as a flight surgeon, supporting space shuttle and space station missions.
- Nicole A. Mann (2013): Mann is currently training as a pilot for the Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.
- Anne McClain (2013): McClain has spent 204 days in space and conducted two spacewalks.
- Jessica Meir (2013): Meir has spent 205 days in space and performed three spacewalks. She previously studied the physiology of animals in extreme environments.
- Jasmin Moghbeli (2017): Moghbeli is a major in the US Marine Corps and previously tested H-1 helicopters.
- Kate Rubins (2009): Rubins is currently orbiting Earth on her second flight aboard the International Space Station. She was the first person to sequence DNA in space and has performed two spacewalks.
- Frank Rubio (2017): Rubio is a US Army lieutenant colonel who previously served as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and flight surgeon.
- Scott Tingle (2009): Tingle has spent 168 days in space and performed one spacewalk.
- Jessica Watkins (2017): Watkins previously served as a member of the California Institute of Technology science team for the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity.
- Stephanie Wilson (1996): Wilson is a veteran of three space shuttle flights, and has spent 42 days in space. She previously worked on the Galileo spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Flight assignments will be announced “later.” Additional team members, including international rocketeers, will join the group “as needed,” according to NASA.
