NASA to announce four-member crew of Artemis 2 mission in April

NASA is set to unveil the team of astronauts who will be heading for the Artemis 2 mission, the space agency's administrator announced on Thursday. According to Space News, Bill Nelson said in his 'State of NASA' speech that the agency will announce the four-person crew of the mission on April 3.

Three of the crew members will be NASA astronauts, while the fourth space traveller will be from Canada as a part of an agreement relating to the country's willingness to be a part of the mission. "On April the third, we will announce the crew for the first mission back to the moon in over a half century. Four astronauts, three from America and one from Canada, will fly around the moon," Nelson said, according to Space.com.

The 10-day-long mission, which will be the first crewed trip to the moon since the Apollo era, is slated to commence in November next year. Nelson delivered the latest remarks merely a few hours after the White House released a budget proposal. For the fiscal year 2024, the Biden administration has proposed a $27.2 billion budget for NASA, which is a 7% hike from the budget allocated to the agency in the fiscal year 2023 in the wake of inflation. 

JUST IN: On April 3, we will reveal the crew for @NASAArtemis II!

Four crew members – three from @NASA & one from @csa_asc – will fly around the Moon. Together, they’ll test the @NASA_SLS rocket & the @NASA_Orion spacecraft. We are going! #StateOfNASA

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) March 9, 2023

What else does the budget proposal include?

While the proposal has been released, the complete budget will roll out on March 13. Lauding the White House for it, Nelson said that the "budget request reflects the administration’s confidence in NASA and its faith in the world’s finest workforce." In the proposal, the White House placed a key focus on cosmic exploration by including $8.1 billion in funding for it.

The proposal “fully funds the rockets, crew vehicle, lunar landers, space suits, and other systems needed to fly astronauts around the Moon” on Artemis 2 and subsequent landing missions. The budget also consists of $949 million for Mars Sample Return, the set of missions that aim to bring back the samples collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars.