NASA’s Artemis II team — four astronauts preparing to fly around the moon — combines seasoned spacefarers and a Canadian first, bringing a mix of combat aviation, long-duration station experience, engineering expertise and leadership to a milestone test flight.
Selected amid celebration in April 2023 and trained for roughly three years, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will spend about nine days on a lunar flyby that tests the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft with humans on board. The mission is a stepping stone toward crewed lunar landings planned later this decade and eventual construction of a sustained presence near the moon’s south pole.
Reid Wiseman — commander
Reid Wiseman, 50, leads the crew. A Baltimore native with degrees in computer and systems engineering and a master’s in systems engineering, Wiseman is a career naval aviator and test pilot. He joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2009 after years of carrier deployments and flying F-18 and F-35 jets. Wiseman’s previous spaceflight was a long-duration mission to the International Space Station in 2014, when he spent 165 days in orbit and performed two spacewalks totaling nearly 13 hours.
Widowed in 2020, Wiseman raises two daughters as a single parent and has spoken candidly about balancing family responsibilities with the unique opportunities of his job. He says his children would prefer he stay home but understand the rarity of this mission.
Victor Glover — pilot
Victor Glover, 49, is the mission’s pilot. From Pomona, California, he holds an engineering degree and multiple advanced degrees related to aviation and systems. A naval aviator with extensive carrier experience, Glover logged more than 3,500 flight hours in 40-plus aircraft, over 400 carrier landings and 24 combat missions before entering NASA in 2013.
Glover served as pilot on SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon mission to the ISS in 2020–21, spending about 168 days in space and performing four spacewalks. Married with four children, he described sharing the assignment with his family as an emotional, celebratory moment.
Christina Koch — mission specialist
Christina Koch, 47, brings deep spaceflight and field-research experience. Born in Grand Rapids and raised in North Carolina, Koch studied engineering and conducted work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center before becoming an astronaut in 2013. Her background includes instrument development for planetary missions and scientific fieldwork in extreme environments such as Antarctica, Greenland and Alaska.
Koch spent 328 days aboard the ISS in 2019–20 and took part in six spacewalks, including historic back-to-back all-female spacewalks. On Artemis II she will become the first woman to travel beyond low-Earth orbit when the crew loops around the moon. Koch frames the mission as part of humanity’s broader effort to answer deep questions about our origins and our place in the universe.
Jeremy Hansen — Canadian mission specialist
Jeremy Hansen, 50, is the Canadian Space Agency astronaut on Artemis II and will be the first Canadian to travel beyond low-Earth orbit. Raised on a farm in Ontario, Hansen earned a degree in space science, became a CF-18 fighter pilot and worked in Arctic and NORAD operations before joining Canada’s astronaut program in 2009. In 2017 he became the first Canadian to serve as lead of a NASA astronaut class.
Hansen has spoken openly about the risks inherent in a first piloted mission of a new launch system and capsule, telling his family that crewed test flights carry real danger even when the most likely outcome is a safe return. He emphasized his optimism and the importance of accepting risk to advance human exploration.
Mission overview
Artemis II is designed as a crewed test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on a lunar flyby. The roughly nine-day flight will carry the four astronauts around the moon and back, validating life-support, navigation and mission operations with humans aboard. Success will clear critical hurdles for future Artemis missions that plan to land astronauts on the lunar surface and build a long-term presence there.
Together, the Artemis II crew represents a blend of combat aviation, test flight experience, long-duration spaceflight knowledge and international partnership. Their nine-day voyage is both a technical trial and a symbolic step: for some, an opportunity to see Earth from a new vantage point, and for Jeremy Hansen, the moment to become the first Canadian to journey into deep space.