Commanders will be Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover. The rest of the crew is Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.
Humans have not been on the moon since December 1972 with Nasa's Apollo 17 expedition. Now the return is approaching.
Tested with dolls
Last fall, Artemis 1's Orion lunar spacecraft flew around the moon. It was an unmanned expedition. On board were human dolls with measuring instruments, for example for radiation. Everything went well. Safety is up to scratch.
With a likely start date of November, it's time for Artemis 2. The SLS (Space Launch System) launcher will take off with Orion for a round trip that covers 2.3 million kilometers over ten days.
The next stage is Artemis 3 and then – probably in December 2025 at the earliest – Orion will land on the moon.
It might be the chance for Jessica Meir, who on Monday attended the ceremony at Johnson Space Center along with everyone else in NASA's astronaut corps.
Historic spacewalk
The Swedish-American stayed from September 2019 to April 2020 (for 205 days) on the International Space Station (ISS).
During the nearly seven months on the ISS, Jessica Meir made three spacewalks. She made space history by performing the first all-female spacewalk with Christina Koch – who will round the moon next year.
In connection with the presentation of the Artemis 2 crew, NASA chief Bill Nelson posted the text about how man's inherent qualities, such as curiosity and thirst for new knowledge, drive the lunar program:
"It's part of our DNA, part of what we are.