Astronauts from NASA‘s first crewed Artemis flight largely sidestepped a question about the diversity of the future astronauts assigned to the upcoming moon-landing mission.
Speaking at a news conference days after their return to Earth, the Artemis II astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — were asked whether the U.S. space agency should uphold its pledge to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, a goal NASA has recently deemphasized.
The moment highlighted an issue NASA has avoided publicly clarifying. The Artemis program’s first landing mission is expected as early as 2028.
“That’s a great question,” Koch told Mashable. “Our understanding of that statement was basically that the Artemis campaign as a whole will usher in an era where that is true, and that it will happen naturally because of our astronaut corps.”
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