Artemis: NASA to send first WOMAN to the Moon by 2024 in operation named after Apollo's twin sister
NASA announced that it will send the first woman ever, and first man in five decades, to the Moon in a mission codenamed ‘Artemis’ by 2024.
“I think it is very beautiful that 50 years after Apollo, the Artemis program will carry the next man and the first woman to the Moon,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said. “I have a daughter who is 11 years old, and I want her to be able to see herself in the same role as the next women that go to the Moon.”
Big @NASA news! The President has submitted an FY2020 budget amendment that provides an increase of $1.6 billion for our #Moon2024 efforts. We are going. Watch the video I sent to the workforce: pic.twitter.com/7kG8h4msdC
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 13, 2019
“The first woman will be an American on the surface of the Moon in five years,” Bridenstine said in April. All 12 people who have walked on the lunar surface have been American men.
Some poked fun at the apparent lack of originality with the “Greek pantheon” naming convention for NASA’s missions, but the majority of commenters online applauded the announcement.
Artemis is a kick-ass name for a Moon program.
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) May 13, 2019
Fun to hear @nasa naming Moon mission Artemis - sister of Apollo & the name I've promoted for decades (including in grad school). The @nasa bureaucrats wouldn't let me use the name for the asteroid mission because Artemis kills Orion in greek mythology... love it even more now!
— Lori Garver (@Lori_Garver) May 14, 2019
Well okay but if you name your Mars missions "Ares" I'm gonna' start getting suspicious...
— Andy Weir (@andyweirauthor) May 14, 2019
Didn't Artemis kill Orion?
— Parabolicarc.com (@spacecom) May 14, 2019
Put it on swag immediately and take my money. pic.twitter.com/RqmzZpB6Gb
— Teach Space 👩🚀🍎 (@Aviatrixt) May 14, 2019
*Reminded me of this joke*First woman on the moon:"Houston we have a problem"What is it?"Nevermind"Whats the problem?"Im fine"
— Cool Idiot (@coolidiot2000) May 14, 2019
I’m curious as to why it would take 5 more years to do something we already did like 50 years ago?
— Kyle Hail (@RealKyleHail) May 14, 2019
US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would be adding $1.6 billion to NASA’s budget so that the US could “return to Space in a BIG WAY!”
The new lunar mission’s codename is Artemis, the Greek goddess of the Moon and the twin sister of Apollo. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission successfully landed the first humans on the Moon.
The actual Artemis program also has a long way to go, as it will require all new hardware for the lunar landers in addition to major testing of the new crew capsule for the mission.
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