This archive report was first published on 22 October 2019.
Published on October 22, 2019, by AFP.
US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who made history as the first all-female duo to conduct a spacewalk, are now setting their sights on a new challenge: becoming the first women to walk on the Moon.
For Meir, a marine biologist, the idea of walking on the Moon has been a lifelong dream. As a child, she would draw pictures of herself standing on the lunar surface.
"So I think maybe I'll make that my new dream," she said during a live news conference from the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA is planning to return to the Moon by 2024 on the Artemis 3 mission, with two astronauts set to walk on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. At least one of the astronauts will be a woman, according to NASA's chief Jim Bridenstine.
Meir and Koch, both in their forties and recruited by NASA in 2013, seem to be natural candidates for the historic mission.
"The idea of having the honor of being the first woman to walk on the Moon is almost too great to fathom," said Koch, 40, when asked about the subject.
