The Artemis II journey around the Moon will be conducted next year by NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who currently holds the world record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Koch will serve as a mission specialist on the mission.

African American naval aviator Victor Glover will operate the Orion spacecraft that will fly around the Moon in November 2024, to become the first Black man to participate in a lunar mission.

“This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate and it’s so much more than the four names that have been announced,” Glover said.

The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, a 47-year-old veteran astronaut, will be joined by Glover, 46, Christina Koch, 44, who is set to become the first woman to go around the moon, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, 47, a former fighter pilot. 

The three Americans and one Canadian will be the first to travel that deep into space since 1972's historic Apollo mission, on a flight that is a prelude to returning humans to the Moon and an eventual mission to Mars.

The three astronauts have all lived on the International Space Station (ISS) while Canadian mission specialist Hansen will be making his first flight to space.

Dressed in blue flight suits, the four astronauts were introduced by NASA administrator Bill Nelson at a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“This is humanity’s crew,” said Nelson.

"The largest, most powerful rocket in the world is going to propel them onward and upward into the heavens," he added.

Koch, who spent a record 11 consecutive months in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks while on the ISS, said she was "absolutely" excited, and Glover said Artemis II is "more than a mission to the Moon and back."

"It is the next step that gets humanity to Mars," he added.

Mars by 2040

The diverse crew was made up of "exceptional operators," Wiseman said.

"We're just all professional explorers," he told AFP.

"We are representing our nation," he added, but "we need the entire world to go along with us."

Canada's minister of innovation, science, and industry, Francois-Philippe Champagne, attended the ceremony and said his country "could not be more proud", as Hansen will be the first Canadian to fly to the Moon.

NASA aims to send astronauts to the Moon in 2025 as part of the Artemis program.

This would be the first time the US sends a woman and a person of color to the Moon, and the US space agency seeks to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface as a breakthrough for an eventual mission to Mars.

Read: NASA: Back to the Moon with mega rocket launch

Nelson said he expects the voyage to Mars to happen by 2040.

The 10-day Artemis II mission will be a test of NASA's powerful Space Launch System rocket as well as to the life-support systems aboard the Orion spacecraft.

The first Artemis flight wrapped up in December with an uncrewed spacecraft that came back safely to Earth after a 25-day journey around the Moon.

It is worth noting that only 12 people, who were all white and all men, have set foot on the Moon.