“The office gets what it needs when it needs it, and we’ll certainly have all these other people that you mentioned, you know, female military test pilots or just other female astronauts, that’ll be picking up on the follow-on Artemis missions.”
-Statement by Artemis III mission commander Randy Bresnik, as quoted by CBS News. He was noting NASA’s diversity of personnel that is ready for the various missions after some criticized NASA for not having a female astronaut among the Artemis III crew. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also noted his work with women throughout his career, adding in the same news story that:
The last astronaut candidate class selected under this administration was majority female [six women and four men] because they were the best of the best, including one astronaut [Anna Menon] I previously went to space with.
Note: It is worth mentioning that in March 2025 NASA eliminated from its webpage its earlier pledge to land the “the first woman, first person of color” on the lunar service as part of Artemis III mission. The removal was said to be related to an anti-DEI Executive Order. Of course, we are now dealing with a different Artemis III, with the Artemis IV mission now scheduled to be the first to land a crew on the Moon.
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