NASA Artemis Moonshot Crew

FILE - NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft slowly rolls back towards the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Feb. 25, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File

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Meet the Artemis crew in NASA's first astronaut mission to the moon in more than a half-century

Meet the Artemis crew in NASA's first astronaut mission to the moon in more than a half-century

The four astronauts making NASA's next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the Apollo era. The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. The Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian. None of them were alive during NASA's Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts to the moon. They won't land on the moon this time or even orbit it. But the out-and-back journey will take them thousands of miles farther from Earth than the Apollo astronauts ventured.