(NewsNation Now) — The iconic man on the moon moment is due for an upgrade.
NASA’s new theme is “Spaceflight for Everybody,” as the space agency is working toward some historic firsts to get the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface.
“When we land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon, it will inspire kids here and around the globe showing that if they can dream it, they can be it,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said.
This trip to the moon will be to “inspire a new league of explorers known as the Artemis generation,” NewsNation reporter Felicia Bolton said during an appearance on Monday’s “Morning in America”
“NASA is committed to helping restore America’s standing in the world. And Artemis is certainly going to help us achieve that,” Nelson said. “By assembling the broadest and most diverse international space exploration coalition in the history of this planet.”
If NASA completes its plan, it will send the first person of color and woman to the Moon by 2025.
Apollo 11 was the first mission to land on the moon back in 1969. That team was formed of all white men. At that time, the U.S. upheld staunch Jim Crow laws that prevented African Americans from participating in the space program.
Many women were not even allowed to apply to be astronauts. It was not until 1983 that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
Now nearly 40 years later, NASA will collaborate with commercial and international partners, working toward a sustainable long-term presence on the moon.
“All that we build. All that we study. All that we do. It will prepare us to return to the moon and then go beyond,” Nelson said.
NASA has delayed its plans to send astronauts to the moon until 2025, but plans to use what it learned on and around the moon to take the next major leap sending the first astronauts to Mars.