NASA selects crew for moon fly-by mission

NASA named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year, including one woman and three men.The three Americans and one Canadian will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024.

Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, will be a mission specialist on next year's Artemis II flight around the Moon.

Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator said "This is their crew. This is our crew. This is humanity's crew." "She's an engineer who got her start at Goddard and is no stranger to breaking records, logging the longest continuous space flight ever by a woman. Your mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch." The crew will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later.