In December 2020, NASA named eighteen astronauts to its Artemis lunar program — half of them women — marking the first moment in the history of spaceflight when the odds genuinely favored a woman walking on the moon. The selection draws from a generation of military officers, engineers, and scientists who have spent careers proving themselves in submarines, cockpits, and orbit. What was once a symbolic aspiration has become a logistical reality: by 2024, the moon may receive its first female visitor, and the human story of exploration will turn a page it has long kept closed.
NASA's Artemis Team includes 9 women vying to be first female lunar walker
The next man and first woman on the Moon are among these eighteen
Mark
So NASA picked eighteen astronauts for this Artemis program. Why does it matter that nine of them are women?
Mimi
Because until now, no woman has walked on the moon. The Apollo program, which landed twelve people on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972, sent only men. This is the first time women are actually in the running for that first step.
Luke
Right, but let's be clear about what we know and don't know. We know these eighteen people were selected for the Artemis Team. We don't know yet who will actually go to the moon, or when, or in what order. The program aims for 2024, but that's a target, not a guarantee.
Mark
Fair point. So who are these women? Are they all military?
Mimi
Four of them are. Barron is a Navy submarine officer—she was in the first class of women commissioned as submarine officers. Mann, McClain, and Moghbeli are all military pilots with combat experience. The other five women come from different backgrounds.
Luke
And we should note: the source material gives us detailed bios on the four military women but says "details are limited" on Moghbeli's official biography, and we get almost nothing on the other five. So the story we can tell is more complete for some than others.
Mark
What's striking about the military officers' backgrounds?
Mimi
They've all done serious, dangerous work. Mann flew forty-seven combat missions. McClain flew over two hundred. Barron did strategic deterrent patrols on a nuclear submarine. These aren't ceremonial roles. They've trained at the highest levels—test pilot schools, advanced engineering degrees from places like MIT and Cambridge.
Luke
The flight hours are worth noting too. Mann has twenty-five hundred hours across twenty-five aircraft types. McClain has two thousand hours in twenty different aircraft. Those are extraordinary numbers. That's the kind of experience NASA wants for a moon mission.
Mark
And the timeline—when could this actually happen?
Mimi
The Artemis program is targeting 2024 for a lunar return, with a sustained presence by the end of the decade. But again, that's the goal, not a done deal.
Luke
And we don't know from this announcement who will be selected from these eighteen for the actual lunar missions. That's a future decision.
Der Puls
- For the first time in sixty years of lunar ambition, nine women stand in direct contention to make the first female footprint on the moon — not as a gesture, but as a mission assignment.
- The Artemis program carries real pressure: a 2024 deadline to return humans to the lunar surface and a mandate to build a permanent presence there by decade's end.
- The women selected are not symbolic choices — they include a submarine warfare officer, a Marine combat pilot with forty-seven sorties, an Army aviator with over two hundred combat missions, and a helicopter test pilot with a hundred fifty combat flights.
- NASA is actively training these astronauts for crewed missions on Boeing's Starliner and other vehicles, meaning the path to the moon runs through assignments already in motion.
- The selection signals a structural shift: the institutions that once excluded women from submarines and combat aircraft have now produced the very candidates most likely to claim the most storied milestone in exploration history.
In December 2020, NASA named eighteen astronauts to its Artemis lunar program — half of them women — marking the first moment in the history of spaceflight when the odds genuinely favored a woman walking on the moon. The selection draws from a generation of military officers, engineers, and scientists who have spent careers proving themselves in submarines, cockpits, and orbit. What was once a symbolic aspiration has become a logistical reality: by 2024, the moon may receive its first female visitor, and the human story of exploration will turn a page it has long kept closed.
On a Wednesday in December 2020, Vice President Mike Pence stood before cameras and read eighteen names — the astronauts NASA had chosen for its Artemis lunar program. Half were women. "The next man and first woman on the Moon," he said, "are among the names that we just read."
The Artemis program is built around two deadlines: return humans to the moon by 2024, and establish a sustained presence there by the end of the decade. To meet them, NASA reached deep into the military's most demanding pipelines. Lieutenant Commander Kayla Barron came from the Navy's submarine service — part of the first class of women ever commissioned as submarine officers, she completed three strategic deterrent patrols aboard a ballistic missile submarine before NASA recruited her in 2017. Nicole Mann, a Marine lieutenant colonel, flew forty-seven combat sorties over Iraq and Afghanistan from the USS Enterprise, then became a test pilot logging over twenty-five hundred hours across twenty-five aircraft types. Army lieutenant colonel Anne McClain flew more than two hundred combat missions in Iraq in Kiowa Warrior helicopters before joining NASA in 2013 and eventually serving aboard the International Space Station. Marine major Jasmin Moghbeli brought an MIT aerospace engineering degree and a hundred fifty combat missions to her 2017 selection.
Five more women — Christina Hammock Koch, Jessica Meir, Kate Rubins, Jessica Watkins, and Stephanie Wilson — complete the nine. Together, they represent something the space program has never quite managed before: not the promise of inclusion, but its operational reality. The first woman to walk on the moon is now a known person, training in a known program, on a known timeline. The question is no longer whether — only who, and when.
On a Wednesday in December 2020, NASA named eighteen astronauts to the Artemis Team, the crew that will carry the agency's next lunar exploration effort. Half of them are women. Nine women now stand in the running to become the first female human to set foot on the moon—a distinction that Vice President Mike Pence, announcing the selection, framed as historic. "The next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read," he said.
The Artemis program itself is ambitious in scope: return humans to the lunar surface by 2024, and build a sustained human presence there by the end of the decade. To do that work, NASA selected four women with deep military backgrounds. Lieutenant Commander Kayla Barron, born in Idaho, is a Navy officer who studied systems engineering at the Naval Academy and nuclear engineering at Cambridge. She was part of the first cohort of women commissioned as submarine officers and completed three strategic deterrent patrols aboard the USS Maine, an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. NASA brought her into the astronaut pipeline in 2017 while she was teaching at the Naval Academy.
Nicole Mann, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel from California, holds degrees in mechanical engineering from both the Naval Academy and Stanford. She earned her naval aviator wings and flew combat missions from the USS Enterprise—forty-seven sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. After combat, she transitioned to test pilot work, flying F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets. Over her career, she has logged more than twenty-five hundred flight hours across twenty-five different aircraft types. She joined NASA in 2013 and has since been training for Boeing's Starliner crewed test flight.
Anne McClain, an Army lieutenant colonel born in Washington, studied mechanical and aeronautical engineering at West Point, then earned advanced degrees in aerospace engineering and international relations from British universities. She piloted OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters and flew more than two hundred combat missions in Iraq, accumulating over eight hundred combat flight hours. As a senior Army aviator, she has logged more than two thousand flight hours in twenty different aircraft. She also joined NASA in 2013 and most recently served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station.
Jasmin Moghbeli, a Marine Corps major born in Germany, holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from MIT and a master's in the same field from the Naval Postgraduate School. She graduated from the Navy Test Pilot School and was testing H-1 helicopters for the Marine Corps in Arizona when NASA selected her in 2017. Her record includes one hundred fifty combat missions and over sixteen hundred flight hours.
Beyond these four military officers, five other women round out the nine selected for Artemis: Christina Hammock Koch, Jessica Meir, Kate Rubins, Jessica Watkins, and Stephanie Wilson. Each brings her own background and expertise to the program. Together, they represent a fundamental shift in who gets to pursue the most distant human frontier. The first woman to walk on the moon is now one of these eighteen people—and the odds, for the first time in the history of lunar exploration, favor a woman.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
The next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read.— Vice President Mike Pence, announcing the Artemis Team selection
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