Meet the four astronauts who make up NASA's Artemis 2 crew: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen

The Artemis 2 crew is just days away from blasting off into space on NASA's first astronaut mission to the Moon in over five decades.

In a further milestone, the four astronauts set to embark on the Artemis 2 mission - Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen - better reflect American society than any previous Moon mission.

If the launch takes place on Wednesday (April 1) as scheduled and all goes to plan on the 10-day, 600,000-mile trip around the Moon and back, Koch will become the first woman to fly to the Earth's only natural satellite. Glover will become the first Black person to travel into deep space and Hansen the first Canadian - and non-American - to travel to the Moon. It marks a refreshing departure from the Apollo-era astronauts, who were exclusively White American men, many with military backgrounds.

Commander Reid Wiseman

Reid Wiseman, 50, a retired Navy captain from Baltimore, served as NASA’s chief astronaut before being asked three years ago to lead the first crewed lunar mission since 1972, The Associated Press reports.

He has two teenage daughters with his wife Carol, who he tragically lost to cancer in 2020. He recalled the moment he told his daughters he had been selected for the mission.

"We talked about it and I said, 'Look, of all the people on planet Earth right now, there are four people that are in a position to go fly around the Moon," he said. "I cannot say no to that opportunity."

Although he joked that his daughters had "zero interest" in him going to space again - after he spent over five months at the International Space Station in 2014 - he added that the following day he returned home to find homemade moon-themed cupcakes waiting for him and their words of support.

Pilot Victor Glover

Victor Glover is a Navy captain and former combat pilot from Pomona, California.

The 49-year-old piloted the SpaceX Crew-1 mission in 2020 - the first routine six-month mission to the International Space Station.

He has several master’s degrees, including a master of science in flight test engineering from Air University at Edwards Air Force Base in California, a master of science in systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a master of military operational art and science from Air University in Alabama.

Glover describes being the first Black man on a Moon mission as both an "amazing blessing and a privilege" and a "force for good". He says he often listens to Gil Scott-Heron’s Whitey on the Moon and Marvin Gaye’s Make Me Wanna Holler - songs from the white-dominated Apollo era.

"I listen to those for perspective," he said. "It captures what we did well, what we did poorly." He and his wife Dionna have four daughters, aged in their late teens and early 20s, "and I spend as much time and thought preparing them as NASA does preparing me," he added.

Mission specialist Christina Koch

Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut and electrical engineer from Jacksonville, North Carolina, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman - an impressive 328 days. The 47-year-old also participated in the first all-female spacewalk during her stay at the space station in 2019.

Before becoming an astronaut, she worked as an electrical engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre and was involved in developing and testing hardware designed to survive launch stresses and operate in the vacuum of space.

"So far, I haven’t gotten too many nerves from folks. Maybe my dog, but I’ve reassured her that it’s only 10 days. It’s not going to be as long as last time." Her and her husband Robert have a rescue dog named Sadie Lou.

Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen

Jeremy Hansen is a Canadian fighter pilot and physicist. It will be the 50-year-old's first trip to space, and he also carries the distinction of being Canada's first emissary to the moon. "Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pressure," he said.

Hansen grew up on a farm near London, Ontario, before moving to Ingersoll and pursuing a flying career. He was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency in 2009 and joined the Artemis 2 crew in 2023. At 6 ft 2, Hansen is uncommonly tall for an astronaut.

He has trained as a cavenaut in European Space Agency's CAVES programme in Sardinia and as an aquanaut during NASA’s NEEMO 19 mission in Florida to prepare for working in isolated, extreme environments.

He and his wife Catherine have a college-aged son and twin daughters, to whom who he has said: "The most likely outcome is that we will come back safe. There’s a chance we won’t, and you will be able to move through life even if that happens."