Vice President Mike Pence will announce a cadre of 18 astronauts from whom NASA will select commanders, pilots and mission experts who will go to the moon as part of the Artemis program.
Multiple sources said Pence will release a list of names as part of an update to NASA’s Artemis Moon program at a meeting of the National Space Council in Florida on Wednesday. This will be not a formal formal assignment of the crew for the next mission but a cadre from which the astronauts will be selected for the upcoming flights. Some astronauts will be present.
The first crude lunar mission, Artemis II, is expected to take four astronauts around the moon to test the Orion spacecraft’s life-support system. This will be the rebirth of the Apollo 8 mission that flew in December 1968, and will be able to fly with 2023. The first lunar-landing mission, Artemis III, could take two or four astronauts and is unlikely to fly before 2026. This will depend on the extent to which the Inside Biden Administration supports Artemis.
NASA announced the “Artemis Cadre” in early 2020, but the Covid-19 excluded the public ceremony with a veil – the goal was to generate excitement and public support about Artemis. Then, this fall, the agency did not want to announce names near the election for fear of politicizing the program.
Still, given that politicization can be difficult to avoid, Pence is announcing what his final seat as chairman of the National Space Council will be. The agenda of this meeting suggests that it would be something for the Trump administration to take note of its achievements in both civilian and military space.
There has been little resistance to the announcement from the Houston-based astronaut office. When initially asked for names to be included in the cadre, the astronaut jumped before the office fee, but the White House and NASA headquarters pushed for names. The Houston-based leadership of the Ast Strong Ps Corps did not want the group to be publicly named because it would necessarily create a group of “favorites” within the FIS, which would erode the sense of unity shared among space flyers. NASA officials declined to comment on the story.
“It’s Unusual”
Office fees currently include 47 of NASA’s 47 astronauts who are eligible for flight assignment, including 11 members of the 2017 class who have not yet flown into space. In the corps, 16 of the astronauts are women, and those named in the cadre will undoubtedly be further investigated as one of them could be the first woman to set foot on the moon.
The timing of this announcement is significant. Certainly, if NASA is planning to send humans into deep space in three years, it is time to start training for a group of astronaut corps, to study geology or to be immersed in various lunar lander development programs.
However, some sources questioned why the announcement needed to be made less than a month before Pence would step down and leave the National Space Council. The agency’s administrator, Jim Brydenstein, also plans to resign on January 20, 2021, the last day of President Trump’s term in office. Thus the meeting of the Space Council gives the Trump administration one last chance to stamp its own on the Artemis program.
“It’s unusual for someone to hand over a crew when they’re out the door,” a former astronaut told Ars. “This may end up flooding because they want to, but it doesn’t really make sense. The Astron Office office is used as a political prop and he hates it that way.”
Specifically, flight assignments are handled by the head of the Astronut Office Office – currently three-time astronaut Patrick Forrester and head of the Flight Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. The Space Council meeting will begin at 12:30 pm EST (17:30 UTC) and will be broadcast on NASA TV.
