HAMPTON, Va. - It's an announcement that marks the next step toward mankind's next giant leap.
At 11 a.m. on Monday, NASA will livestream the naming of the four astronauts set to ride in the Orion space capsule for the agency's Artemis II mission around the moon and back.
The mission is scheduled to blast off in November of 2024.
Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton are hard at work making sure the rocket is safe with humans on board.
"It's extremely exciting," NASA Langley Director Clayton Turner told News 3 of the announcement. “Those will be the steps that we look back on and remember that’s what got us to living and working on the lunar surface as a routine thing.”
The announcement will be made from Houston nearly five months after Artemis I rocketed from the earth's surface in Florida.
That mission took a route similar to what Artemis II will take, but it was an uncrewed test flight. The mission was a success from takeoff to splash down — the testing for which was done at Langley, among other mission-critical work.
All of it sets up Artemis III in 2025 or 2026, which will take the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface — NASA's first trip there since 1972.
Turner says for the upcoming missions, Langley will once again be involved, including in the crucial Launch Abort System.
"The other area where Langley is a key partner is in aerodynamics, so when the vehicle launches from the pad and starts moving at very high velocities, there’s a lot of air pressure on it," he said. "We have to make sure there’s nothing that’s going to cause the vehicle to crush.”
Protecting the precious lives inside, whoever they may be.
Williamsburg native Zena Cardman is a finalist to be the first woman on the moon, but it's likely four other faces will be selected on Monday for the preceding Artemis flight.
“Whoever the four are, that will be equally exciting," Turner told News 3. "We’re going to be watching the announcement and losing our mind just like everybody else.”
And then it's back to work making history.
