Key keywords: NASA Artemis mission, Artemis II crew, lunar exploration astronauts, Orion spacecraft, deep space travel, 2024 lunar flyby, Artemis program, manned moon mission, Johnson Space Center, Bill Nelson NASA hosted a live broadcast from its Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas on Monday to officially announce the four crew members selected for the Artemis II mission, the first manned lunar flyby mission in more than 50 years, following the final Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The highly anticipated announcement was led by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who was joined by leadership from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), as the mission marks the first time a non-U.S. astronaut will join a deep space lunar crew. The four selected astronauts include three NASA personnel and one CSA representative: Reid Wiseman, a former NASA Astronaut Office chief who will serve as mission commander; Victor Glover, a veteran SpaceX Crew Dragon pilot who previously spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station and will act as the mission pilot; Christina Koch, who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days and has completed 6 spacewalks, will serve as mission specialist; and Jeremy Hansen, a CSA astronaut and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, who will be the first Canadian and first non-American ever to take part in a lunar flight mission. Slated to launch as early as November 2024 on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the 10-day Artemis II mission will not land on the lunar surface, but will carry the four crew members aboard the Orion spacecraft on a full orbit around the moon, reaching a maximum distance of more than 230,000 miles from Earth. The mission is designed to fully test all of Orion’s critical systems, including life support, deep space navigation, thermal protection, and communication capabilities, in real deep space conditions before the program moves forward with the Artemis III mission, which is scheduled to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface as early as 2025. NASA’s live announcement stream is available to watch on NASA TV, the agency’s official website, and its official social media channels across YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The broadcast includes remarks from all four crew members, who shared their excitement for the historic mission, as well as updates on the final testing and preparation steps ahead of next year’s launch. The Artemis program as a whole aims to establish a sustained human presence on and around the moon by the end of the decade, laying the technological and operational groundwork for future manned deep space missions to Mars.