Who are the Artemis II astronauts heading to the Moon?

Personal items the Artemis II crew takes to the Moon

Pallab Ghosh,Scientific correspondent,

Alison François,Senior science journalistAnd

Kevin Church

Four astronauts are about to become the most closely watched crew since Apollo.

They will be the first to orbit the Moon for more than 50 years, testing the path back for the next generation.

The crew includes three NASA astronauts – Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch – as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

Not only are they accomplished pilots, engineers, and scientists, but they are also spouses and parents who must balance a heroic adventure with the risks they and their loved ones will face.

Here’s what we know about them.

Reid Wiseman – Commander

Reid Wiseman is a US Navy test pilot turned astronaut, who spent six months on the International Space Station in 2014 as a flight engineer on Expedition 40. Wiseman says he has always loved flying, but on the ground he is afraid of heights.

He will command Artemis II in what is the second flight of the Orion spacecraft and the first to carry people around the Moon in more than 50 years.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Wiseman lost his wife to cancer in 2020 and raised his two teenage daughters alone. He describes being a single parent as “the greatest challenge and most rewarding phase” of his life.

However, he did not protect his children from the realities of risk. On a walk with them, he said, “Here’s where the will is, here’s where the trust documents are, and if something happens to me, here’s what’s going to happen to you… It’s part of this life.”

He says he wishes more families would have this conversation — because “you never know what the next day is going to bring.”

Although he holds the title of Commander, he is careful not to make Artemis II seem like his only mission.

“When I look at Victor and Christina and Jeremy, they want to go do this mission, they’re motivated, they’re humble to a fault. It’s so cool to be with them,” he says, hoping that in decades to come their flight will be seen as a “small step” toward people living on the Moon and, eventually, walking on Mars.

For the personal item NASA allows astronauts to take with them, Wiseman plans to bring a small notepad so he can jot down his thoughts during the mission.

Christina Koch – Mission Specialist

Christina Koch is an engineer and physicist who became an astronaut in 2013 and set the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 days aboard the International Space Station in 2019. During this mission, she also participated in the first all-female spacewalk.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and raised in North Carolina, she would become the first woman to travel to the Moon.

His journey to Artemis II began with a photograph. As a child, she kept a poster of Earth rising above the lunar surface – the famous Earthrise photo taken by Bill Anders from Apollo 8 – on her bedroom wall and decided she wanted to become an astronaut when she learned that a human, not an automatic camera, had pressed the shutter.

“The fact that there was a human being behind that lens made that image much deeper and changed the way we designed our own homes,” she says. “The Moon was not just a symbol for thinking about our place in the Universe, it is a beacon for science and understanding where we come from.”

Koch has spent more than 25 years with Apollo veterans through a scholarship foundation and NASA commemorative events, and says what the former astronauts really taught him was camaraderie.

Koch takes handwritten notes from loved ones for her personal item, which she described as a “tactile connection” with her loved ones on Earth.

At home, spaceflight is a common conversation with her husband. She says he’s curious to know “what are the big milestones, what are the risky parts, when he can breathe a sigh of relief, when he has to be glued to the television.”

One of the more prosaic preparations has been to persuade him that Artemis is not like his mission on the ISS: There will be no casual phone calls from orbit, no quick check-ins to locate a missing item in a closet. “He won’t be able to call me and ask me where anything is in the house,” she laughs. “He’s going to have to find it.”

Jeremy Hansen – Mission Specialist

Jeremy Hansen is a former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and physicist who joined the Canadian Space Agency in 2009. Although he had never flown in space before, he played a key role in training new astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, becoming the first Canadian to lead this work.

He is married with three children and enjoys sailing, climbing and mountain biking.

Like Koch, Hansen traces his fascination with space to Apollo 8. Growing up in rural Canada, he transformed his treehouse into an imaginary spaceship after seeing a photo of Buzz Aldrin standing on the lunar surface.

The risks taken by the Apollo astronauts shaped the way he talks about Artemis II to his own family. Over the Christmas break, they watched footage together of Artemis I’s uncrewed launch so he could warn them that when the main engines ignite, it may briefly look like the rocket is exploding — and reassure them that that’s normal.

He also told them that when they hear engineers on repeat discussing “worst case scenarios” or unusual sensor readings, it often sounds scarier than it is; it’s simply how teams explore the limits of safety during a first crewed flight.

If all goes according to plan, Hansen will become the first non-American to travel to the Moon – a milestone he sees as a sign of how far international cooperation in space has come since Apollo. “The Artemis missions set such an ambitious goal for humanity that… nations around the world are coming together,” he says.

Hansen will wear four moon-shaped pendants for his wife and three children, engraved with the phrase “Moon and Back” and set with their birthstones. The Canadian will also take maple syrup and maple cookies on his lunar trip.

Victor J Glover – Pilot

Victor Glover is a former US Navy fighter pilot and test pilot who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. He was a pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew 1 mission and spent nearly six months on the International Space Station as part of Expedition 64. Born in Pomona, California, he is married with four children and is set to become the first black person to travel to the Moon.

Those who know him say he is the most charismatic of the quartet and the best dressed, with trademark brown leather boots that look great even with an orange flight suit. His call sign, “IKE”, is reputed to be short for “I Know Everything”, a nod to his three master’s degrees in flight test engineering, systems engineering and military operational art and science.

At a 2023 red carpet event in New York, he looked every bit the modern astronaut celebrity, alongside his wife Dionna.

In preparation for Artemis II, Glover worked on original articles from the Gemini and Apollo journals from the 1960s, looking for engineering and flying lessons that might still apply. Between the graphs and equations, he says, we see the people behind the missions; what their families were going through, what they knew and didn’t yet know as they headed into the unknown.

“Pushing ourselves to explore is at the heart of who we are,” he says. “It’s part of being human… We go out to explore, to learn where we are, why we are, to understand the big questions about our place in the universe.”

Glover said he will take with him a Bible, his wedding rings and family heirlooms, as well as a collection of inspirational quotes compiled by Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart.

In a NASA video, each of the astronauts ume the mission in a single sentence. “We are ready,” says Koch; “We’re going,” adds Hansen; “To the Moon,” Glover said. Wiseman, complete the sentence: “For all humanity!”