A British man or woman could walk on the moon within the next couple of decades after NASA hinted there would be a future astronaut spot for one of its ‘international partners’.
US space agency bosses, including administrator Bill Nelson, are currently in Britain holding talks with their UK counterparts over the country’s involvement in NASA’s Artemis lunar missions.
UK companies are helping to build the service and habitation modules for the planned Lunar Gateway space station, which will orbit the moon and serve as an ‘outpost’ for astronauts when humans return to the lunar surface later this decade.
Nelson said the first two astronauts to return to the moon in 2025 would be American, and would include ‘the first woman and likely the next man’ to walk on the lunar surface.
They would become the first humans to do so in more than 50 years.
Excitement: A British man or woman could walk on the moon within the next couple of decades after NASA hinted there would be a future astronaut spot for one of its ‘international partners’. Pictured is Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969

UK firms are helping to build the planned Lunar Gateway station (shown in artist’s impression)

Flying the flag: There have been seven UK-born astronauts who have travelled to space, including Tim Peake in 2015 and the first Briton to do so, Helen Sharman (pictured left), in 1991

US space agency bosses, including administrator Bill Nelson and his deputy Pamela Melroy (both centre above), are currently in Britain holding talks with their UK counterparts over the country’s involvement in NASA’s Artemis lunar missions
Nelson’s deputy Pamela Melroy also went on to add that there would later be a space on a future mission for an astronaut from one of NASA’s partners.
She said: ‘I feel very confident we’ll have an international partner because they’re contributing to building Gateway… but we haven’t sorted out yet when they will go to the surface.’
Currently, Tim Peake — who spent six months on the International Space Station from 2015-2016 — is the only Briton on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) astronaut roster.
However, it is understood that several UK hopefuls have made it through to the final selection stages for the next batch of ESA astronauts, set to be revealed this year.
Nelson and Melroy met Paul Bate, the UK Space Agency’s chief executive, at the Farnborough International Airshow this week.
Bate said it was an honour to welcome the two NASA bosses and added that there would be ‘further opportunities [for UK involvement] as the programme comes to life’.
NASA’s ambitious Artemis project plans a lunar base by the end of this decade, along with the Gateway station which is set to be built between the first and second crewed landings, from 2026.
The orbiting lab will have a four person capacity and will see NASA work with some existing International Space Station partners including Europe, Japan and Canada.
Large parts of the station will be built by commercial partners and will have a docking port for the SpaceX Starship lunar lander that will ferry astronauts between the orbiting base and the surface of the moon.
Lunar Gateway forms a core part of the Artemis missions, which will see NASA land the first woman and first astronaut of colour on the moon.
Later this year, the US space agency plans to send manikins to space as part of the Artemis I mission.

NASA’s Artemis project plans a lunar base by the end of this decade, along with the Gateway station which is set to be built between the first and second crewed landings, from 2026

The orbiting Gateway lab will have a four person capacity and will see NASA work with some existing International Space Station partners including Europe, Japan and Canada

Currently, Tim Peake (pictured) — who spent six months on the International Space Station from 2015-2016 — is the only Briton on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) astronaut roster
It is planning to discuss the next steps for this at a teleconference from 16:00 BST (11:00 ET), on what is the 53rd anniversary of Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon.
Artemis I will pave the way for crewed flights — Artemis II, which will launch in May 2024 and fly by the moon without landing on it, and Artemis III, which will actually touch down on the lunar surface.
Artemis III, which will launch ‘no earlier than 2025’, will be the first to land humans on the moon in more than 50 years, since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
All 12 people who have so far set foot on the moon are American men. There have been seven UK-born astronauts who have travelled to space, including Peake in 2015 and the first Briton to do so, Helen Sharman, in 1991.
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