NASA is sending its first Black and first female astronauts to the moon

NASA is preparing to launch a mission to the moon — and it's making history for more reasons than one. The space agency's Artemis II launch marks the U.S.'s first journey back to the moon in more than 50 years. It will also carry the first Black astronaut and the first female astronaut to travel to the moon, though the mission will be a flyby without a touchdown on the surface. The launch, originally scheduled for early February and now delayed, will carry four astronauts around the moon and back, including Victor Glover and Christina Koch, the first Black and first female astronauts, respectively, to make the flight. The mission follows the success of the Artemis I launch in 2022, which was uncrewed, and marks NASA's next step toward eventually sending astronauts to Mars. "The benefits of the Artemis program are technological, but they're also cultural," Glover, who is a decorated U.S. Navy captain and has traveled to the International Space Station, said in a 2024 NASA video . "What really means something to me is the inspiration that will come from it, inspiring future generations to reach for the moon, literally to reach for the moon." Koch began her career at NASA, starting as an engineer and going on to conduct scientific research before becoming an astronaut in 2013, also traveling to the International Space Station. "The one thing I'm most excited about is that we are going to carry your excitement, your aspiration, your dreams with us on this mission," Koch said at the 2023 press conference when the mission's astronauts were announced. Danielle Wood, a professor in the astronautics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said this mission builds upon decades of NASA's work, including lessons learned from its previously failed endeavors. "NASA's been thinking through this whole process, two decades' worth, of what we're going to do is prepare the government to focus on these harder, next-generation missions and be able to do things that are not ...