Astronauts up close with Artemis could be next moon walkers

A gaggle of blue-suited space veterans along with some who have yet to make it to orbit were on hand at Kennedy Space Center this weekend to get a look at the massive Artemis I rocket on the launch pad.

Astronauts and astronaut candidates from both NASA and the Canadian Space Agency headed out to Launch Pad 39-B on Sunday to take photos ahead of the planned liftoff of the 1st lunar mission of the Artemis program. It paves the way for future crewed flights with Artemis II expecting to fly four on an orbital mission to the moon in 2024. That flight is expected to include three NASA astronauts and one Canadian with crew assignments potentially to be named before the end of the year, according to astronaut Stan Love.

Love was on hand along with NASA astronauts Joe Acabá (a former Central Florida science teacher), Victor Glover, Don Pettit, Jessica Meir, Shannon Walker, Kate Rubins, Reid Wiseman, Stephanie Wilson, Zena Cardman and Randy Bresnik.

Also at KSC were NASA astronaut candidates Christina Birch, Jack Hathaway, Andre Douglas, Chris Williams and Jessica Wittner. And from the Canadian Space Agency were Jeremy Hansen and Joshua Kutryk.

In 2020, NASA named its first 18 astronauts for its pool of Artemis missions. The Artemis III mission aims to land the next two astronauts including the first woman on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Those 18 are Acabá, Glover, Rubins, Meir and Wilson, all on site this weekend as well as astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Matthew Dominick, Woody Hoburg, Jonny Kim, Christina Koch, Kjell Lindgren, Nicole Mann, Anne McClain, Jasmin Moghbeli, Frank Rubio, Scott Tingle and Jessica Watkins. Lindgren and Watkins are currently on the International Space Station and Mann is slated to launch to the ISS on the Crew-5 flight aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon from KSC as early as Oct. 3.

Then NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said these were just the first with more to come, but among them will be three who fly to the moon, but not land, on Artemis II. There are 42 active astronauts in the NASA Astronaut Corps.

When asked how many are in the running for those and future Artemis lunar landing positions, Love, who became a NASA astronaut in 1998 and flew on Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-122 said, “42. All of us. ... I have hopes, but everybody in our office has hopes. We’ll see what happens.” He said he expects to be CAPCOM for Artemis II.

Meir posted an Instagram selfie of her rocket rendezvous Sunday saying, “This morning I had my very first look at the fully assembled #Artemis1 rocket - I’m speechless, especially when experienced with a classmate and new @nasaastronauts! Years of dreams and exceptional hard work at @nasa have paid off - WE ARE GOING!”

Only 12 men have ever set foot on the moon, all on six Apollo landings from 1969-1972. The last two on the moon were Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt who left the surface on Dec. 14, 1972.

Schmitt, 87, is expected to be on site for today’s launch along with Apollo 10 astronaut Thomas Stafford, 91, who orbited the moon.

Schmitt is one of only four men still alive who have walked on the moon with the others being Buzz Aldrin, 92, the second man on the moon. The others are Apollo 15′s David Scott, 90, Apollo 16′s Charles Duke, 86.

Several more astronauts who flew to the moon, but didn’t land, are alive as well. They include Apollo 8′s Frank Borman, 94, Apollo 8 and 13′s Jim Lovell, 94, Apollo 8′s Bill Anders, 88, Apollo 10′s Stafford, Apollo 13′s Fred Haise, 88, and Apollo 16′s Ken Mattingly, 86.

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