Two former U.S. Navy fighter pilots are aboard the first crewed orbit around the moon in more than 50 years after launching on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the Artemis II mission. Retired Capt.

Christina Koch will be the first woman to fly around the moon in the Artemis II launch.

As one of NASA’s few Black astronauts, Victor Glover sees his presence on the mission as “a force for good.” The 49-year-old Navy captain and former combat pilot from Pomona, California, makes it a habit to listen to Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon” and Marvin Gaye’s “Make Me Wanna Holler” from the white-dominated Apollo era.

Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut and former Navy pilot, will command Artemis II. Learn about his education, career, spaceflight experience, and role in NASA’s first crewed mission around the Moon.

NASA says space mission on track for Wednesday launch, aiming to carry a crew to the moon for first time in 5 decades

It's humanity's first flight to the moon since 1972. In a throwback to Apollo, NASA's Artemis II mission will send four astronauts on a lunar fly-around.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — The US military has always been part of NASA’s human spaceflight program. The first astronauts were nearly all military pilots, and two of the four crew members set to fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission were Navy test pilots before joining the astronaut corps.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is about to break barriers as the first woman to travel beyond Earth orbit on Artemis II.