How the Artemis II Crew Was Chosen — and What Each of Them Brings to the Mission

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are going to the moon. Here is who they are, how they were selected, and what each brings to the mission.

The selection of Artemis II's crew — announced in 2023 and unchanged through the mission's multiple schedule adjustments — reflects NASA's systematic approach to crew composition that balances operational experience with historical significance and institutional relationships.

Reid Wiseman, the mission commander, brings spaceflight experience from a 2014 International Space Station mission and the specific character of operational leadership that long-duration spaceflight develops. His career trajectory through test pilot, ISS crew, and now lunar mission commander represents the traditional astronaut pipeline applied to the next generation of deep-space operations.

Victor Glover, the pilot, is making history: he is the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon's vicinity. His previous spaceflight — a 2020 ISS mission — gave him the operational experience that Artemis mission planners considered essential for the pilot's specific responsibilities in Orion's flight dynamics management. His military career as a Navy pilot, Navy test pilot, and astronaut represents a career of incremental technical capability development applied at each stage.

Christina Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman — 328 days on the ISS in 2019-2020. Her Artemis II mission mission specialist role draws on the specific expertise in life support systems and long-duration human spaceflight physiology that her ISS mission uniquely developed. Her 328-day experience provides direct relevance to the future lunar surface missions that will require extended life support in challenging environments.

Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency's mission specialist and the only non-NASA crew member, represents the multinational dimension of the Artemis programme. Canada's contribution to the Artemis programme — specifically the Canadarm3 robotic system for the Gateway lunar space station — is recognised through Hansen's crew inclusion. He will become the first Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit, a milestone for both his country and its space programme.