United States: The United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed the four-member crew for its upcoming mission around the moon, including the first woman, the first person of colour, and the first Canadian assigned to a lunar mission.

NASA announced that Mr. Reid Wiseman, Mr. Victor Glover, Ms. Christina Hammock Koch, and Mr. Jeremy Hansen would crew the Artemis II mission for a 10-day flight, marking the agency’s first manned moon voyage in over half a century.

“For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals will be the first humans to fly to the vicinity of the moon,” Ms. Vanessa Wyche, Director of the Johnson Space Centre, said in a statement.

The launch, scheduled for 2024, will be only the second in the Artemis program, a multinational initiative to establish a “long-term presence on the moon.” The last time a manned crew approached the moon was in 1972, as part of NASA’s Apollo programme.

“This mission paves the way for the expansion of human deep space exploration and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industrial, and academic partnerships,” Wyche added. The director called the crew “the best of humanity.”

Mr. Wisemen, Mr. Glover, and Ms. Koch from the US will be making their second trip into space with the Artemis flight.

Ms. Koch has previously been recognised for notching several “firsts” in space as well as holding the record for the longest single spaceflight conducted by a woman.

Mr. Glover, meanwhile, is set to become the first person of colour to participate in a moon voyage. A former legislative fellow in the US Senate, he recently piloted 2021’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, serving as second-in-command on the flight.

The third American, Mr. Wiseman, has served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station, spending 165 days in orbit and logging nearly 13 hours as a lead spacewalker.

The Americans are joined by the first Canadian astronaut to join a lunar flight, Mr. Jeremy Hansen. The Ontario-born former fighter pilot will be making his first trip into space after serving as a colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces.

The four-member team is expected to travel more than 2.2 million kilometres as they loop around the moon, marking the closest lunar approach since the Apollo 17 mission.

WORLD ROUNDUP: Russia protests over US-troops action in Syria