
The announcement of the Artemis II crew will be made on April 3 and Futura will be live for the occasion! The astronauts unveiled will be the first lunar travelers since Apollo 12 in 1972, more than 50 years ago! The crew will fly in lunar orbit, without landing. This time it’s the right one! After the success of the Artemis I unmanned test flight, NASA is heading for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts on board. The exhaustive analysis of flight data confirms that all safety parameters have been met, giving the green light for the next mission, currently scheduled for November 2024. The official announcement from the crew of Artemis IICrew of this mission will be unveiled on Monday, April 3, said general manager Bill Nelson. It will have four astronauts, including three Americans and one Canadian. No European astronaut is scheduled for the first missions. Three places are already guaranteed but it will be for the installation of the European modules of the future international space station Gateway, in halo orbit around our natural satellite. A fourth place, this time for a ground mission, is being negotiated. At the same time as this announcement, the White House has just published the budget requested for NASA in 2024, with a general increase of 7% for a total of 27.2 billion dollars, including an increase of 500 M$ for the Artemis program. Please note: Futura will be live to comment on this important announcement.