On July 20, 1969, First Man On Moon, was the breaking news across the globe. American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the lunar surface and Edwin Aldrin became the second person to do so. As Armstrong took his first step, he said “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This was the Apollo 11 mission that occurred eight years after President John F. Kennedy announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Since then, the last manned moon mission by NASA occurred in the year 1972.

Now after almost 48 years, NASA, America’s prestigious space agency announced that they have selected 18 astronauts who will train for their upcoming moon manned mission called Artemis.

The space flight Artemis 3 is the third planned flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft to be launched at the Space Launch System. The flight is scheduled for October 2024, and Artemis 3 will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in the year 1972.

The program focuses on sending the crew within a decade and among 18 astronauts selected for training, there are women and people of different ethnicities. NASA promises that the dream of the first woman keeping her boots on the spiky razor-like moon-dust will be soon possible with the Artemis Mission to land on the moon.

Indian-American astronaut and American test pilot Raja Chari is also among the 18 astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis Mission to Moon.  Raja could be the first Indian stepping on the Moon. Meanwhile, India’s prestigious space agency ISRO had also declared their Manned Mission to Moon, namely Gaganyan which is planned for December 2021.

NASA finally shortlisted this group of 18 astronauts from 47 of its active astronauts working on the Artemis project.

“Our goal is to go to the moon sustainably, to learn how to live and work on another world,” said NASA’s Administrator Jim Bridenstine during his meeting of the National Space Council, while announcing the names of the 18 astronauts selected for the training.Find our vast collection of fascinating blogs on Science & Technology by clicking here. Do checkout our blog on Japan’s Space Probe that holds evidence to origins of Solar system and Planets. Also, stay tuned for our upcoming blogs and revisit to know first, what’s trending.

We’re keeping a close watch and will keep you posted on the updates related with this project. Do check the trending news section to keep yourself updated on everything going around on the globe.