Beginning with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and ending with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, a total of 12 men walked on the moon. Women played important roles in the missions—but mostly behind the scenes. The first female NASA astronaut, Sally Ride, didn’t visit space until 1983. That same mission also included the first person of color to visit space, a Black man named Guion Bluford.
Today 30 percent of NASA’s launch control staff—including the Artemis I launch director—are women. And an equal number of male and female astronauts make up the Artemis team from which those who will return to the moon will be selected. Many team members are also people of color.
During the Artemis missions, the astronauts will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft (see Artemis Blasts Off). It’s about 57 percent larger than the capsule Apollo astronauts flew in. That’s because Orion will house more astronauts—up to four—for a longer period. “That said, it’s still a little capsule,” says Jessica Vos, a NASA crew systems engineer. The Orion crew will have just 9 cubic meters (330 cubic feet) of living space. Engineers must fit exercise equipment, a food preparation area, a bathroom, and sleeping bags inside the capsule. Even though it will be crowded, says Vos, “we’re designing Orion to be as comfortable and as accommodating a working and living space as we can.”
The spacecraft has a lot of important cargo to carry, but it needs to be as light as possible. “Every pound takes a tremendous amount of rocket fuel to push that mass to the moon and back again,” says Geffre. The moon orbits about 390,000 kilometers (240,000 miles) from Earth, a distance that will take astronauts about three days to travel. That’s why “we have worked very diligently to remove every additional ounce we could from the spacecraft,” says Geffre.