NASA's Blue Ghost spaceship reveals stunning close-up of the Moon

Victor Glover , 46 , was selected to take part in the Artemis II mission.

He will be the first person of color to travel into deep space, hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the low- Earth orbiting International Space Station (ISS) If successful, NASA plans to launch an expedition to land on the moon titled Artemis III .

It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars .

The Artemis mission is the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology.

Only 15 black astronauts have ever been selected out of 348 .

Mr Glover will be the first black astronaut to live on the ISS from November 17, 2020 to May 2, 2021 .

Jeanette Epps , 52 , who was selected to be an astronaut in 2009 is set to become the second African American , and first black woman, to live in space after the launch of Boeing Starliner-1 in 2024 or later.

Christina Koch , 44 , will become the first woman to orbit the moon in 2020 .

Ms Koch was one of eight selected as part of NASA 's 21st class of astronauts in 2013 .

Her first space flight came in 2019 when she was sent to the ISS to work as a flight engineer.