ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gave his annual State of NASA speech on Thursday dropping the news of when the agency would announce the four astronauts that will fly on the first crewed mission of the Artemis program while giving a top-level look at a record budget request from President Joe Biden.
The three Americans and one Canadian that will fly to the moon, but not land on it, will be revealed on April 3, Nelson said.
It will be the first time humans have flown to the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. The four will strap into the Orion capsule to be launched from Kennedy Space Center atop the Space Launch System rocket on the Artemis II mission now targeting November 2024 liftoff, falling two years after the successful launch of the uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022.
