Crew portrait for Artemis II, from left: NASA Astronauts
Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Canadian
Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

NASA on Monday 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 were introduced during
a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation’s astronauts as well
as Mission Control.

"This is humanity’s crew," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

The four astronauts 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. They 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.

Provided this next 10-day moonshot goes well, NASA aims to
land two astronauts on the moon by 2025 or so.

NASA picked from 41 active astronauts for its first Artemis crew
and Canada had four candidates. (MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer)

Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up
images of the moon—4,308 in total—before it impacts with the
lunar surface northwest of the Sea of Clouds. The images were
1,000 times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had attempted a similar mission earlier in the year—Ranger 6—but
the probe’s cameras had failed as it descended to the lunar
surface. Ranger 7, launched from Earth on July 28, successfully activated its cameras 17 minutes, or 1,300 miles, before impact
and began beaming the images back to NASA’s receiving station
in California.

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Ranger 7 approaching the
Moon.

Tests of a VIPER prototype (Image: NASA)

A new lunar rover is under development by Lockheed Martin
and Goodyear as NASA gears up for a return to the moon.

Unlike the rover first used during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971,
built to last only a few days and for short trips, the new lunar
vehicle is being built for extended use. And this time, it’s not
just for NASA.

Aside from Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, and Lockheed
Martin, MDA of Canada will provide its commercial robotic
arm technology for the vehicles.

The companies anticipate having their first vehicle on the
moon’s surface at the same time as NASA’s mission, planned
for 2025.

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene A. Cernan makes a
short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early
part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity.

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from
Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening
at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”      

Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, descends the
steps of the Lunar Module ladder.

Buzz Aldrin salutes the deployed United States flag.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank
Borman, James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders aboard (above).

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the
moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so. During Apollo
8‘s 10 lunar orbits, television images were sent back home, and spectacular photos were taken of Earth and the moon from the spacecraft. In addition to being the first human beings to view
firsthand their home world in its entirety, the three astronauts
were also the first to see the far side of the moon.

The iconic "Earthrise" image taken by astronaut Bill Anders
on Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968. Friday marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 liftoff.