By Zahra Tayeb, Yahoo! News
NASA is giving people the chance to fly their name around the moon on an upcoming mission later this year.
Those who sign up will have their name saved on a flash drive, which will be taken into space aboard the agency’s Orion capsule, as part of its Artemis 1 mission.
No payment is required for participants, according to NASA. Upon signing up, participants will receive a virtual boarding pass featuring their name and details about the spaceflight. “We’re getting ready for #Artemis I — and we want to take you with us,” NASA said in a tweet.
The Artemis 1 mission will be the first uncrewed test flight to blast past the moon before returning to Earth, testing technology that will carry humans in the future.
Through its Artemis program, the agency hopes to return humans to the moon as part of a long-term goal for a sustainable lunar presence.
“The flight paves the way toward landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon!” the agency said.
The historic launch will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flight does not have an exact date set yet but is expected to take place “no earlier than March 2022.”
It was originally scheduled for November 2021 but faced several delays. The date was then pushed to February but was delayed again. This was because the agency wanted “additional time to complete closeout activities inside the Vehicle Assembly prior to rolling the integrated rocket and spacecraft out for the first time.”
NASA said the mission aims to demonstrate its commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
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