July 20th, 2019 marked the 50 year anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission. 50 years ago, the first man stepped foot on the Moon. We’re all thrilled about this amazing feat, but there’s more to come! A huge announcement was made at the 50th anniversary celebration! The announcement made is yet another feat mankind has not yet accomplished… until now!
NASA has officially announced the new spacecraft will shoot the very first woman to the Moon.
As of March 2019, of the more than 500 people who have flown to space, just 64 have been women. The first woman was Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Twenty years later, in June 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Mae Jemison followed in 1992 as the first black woman in space. We’ve already had a man on the Moon. Now, it’s time for a woman to be provided the opportunity to step foot. Yet another historic event in our world’s history! This past Saturday, American Vice President Pence and NASA shared the exciting news.
The Vice President’s exact words were “Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of NASA, and of American industry, the Orion crew vehicle for the Artemis 1 mission is complete and ready to begin preparations for its historic first flight.” The announcement took place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
So who will be the brave girl?
As of now, we don’t know. But as some projects are being developed, others are being tested, such as in an article we posted last week covering the release of a new “abort mission” module being developed as well, in the case a problem arises during spaceflight.
The overall goal is to have the ‘abort mission’ vessel complete at the same time or prior to the preparations for the historic flight being ready to go!