NASA retires all four Artemis 2 astronauts

The three astronauts announced their departure from NASA and, three weeks later, Christina Koch left the astronaut corps to take up a management position. None of the four will ever go to space again.

NASA has confirmed the retirement of **Reid Wiseman**, **Victor Glover** and **Jeremy Hansen** as astronauts. All three announced their departure at the same time. Three weeks later, **Christina Koch's** departure was announced, though she is not leaving the agency: she becomes deputy director of engineering. The practical consequence is the same for all four: none of them will fly to space again.

## What Artemis 2 was and who its crew were

Artemis 2 is the crewed mission that was to take four astronauts around the Moon without landing, as a precursor to a return to the surface. The crew consisted of Wiseman as commander, Glover as pilot, and Koch and Hansen as mission specialists. Hansen is Canadian, from the **CSA**, and his presence reflected the international sharing of the programme.

The simultaneous retirement of three members and the transfer of the fourth to an engineering office leave the mission without its original crew. NASA has not publicly linked these departures to any medical incident or radiation exposure.

## Radiation: what limit exists and what has not been measured

The standard NASA uses sets a limit of **600 millisieverts (mSv)** accumulated over an astronaut's entire career. The goal is that no crew member exceeds a **3%** additional risk of fatal cancer. Other agencies, such as the European **ESA** or Russia's **Roscosmos**, allow somewhat higher limits, of up to **1000 mSv**.

That limit is a career reference, not a dose reading. There is no published figure for the millisieverts accumulated by these four astronauts, and none of them has yet flown on Artemis 2. The spacecraft and suits do carry sensors, but their measurements have not been made public nor presented as the cause of these departures.

## The Apollo 11 astronauts lived to 82, 90 and 96

The argument that lunar radiation would have left lasting damage clashes with a verifiable fact. **Neil Armstrong** died on **August 25, 2012** at the age of **82**, from complications after cardiovascular surgery. **Michael Collins** passed away on **April 28, 2021** at **90**, after a cancer diagnosis. **Buzz Aldrin**, born on **January 20, 1930**, is still alive and is **96 years old**.

Three long lifespans prove nothing about specific doses, but they do not support the claim that those lunar walks left them damaged either. The longevity of the Apollo 11 crew is a fact; turning it into evidence of a lunar hoax is an unsupported hypothesis. Radiation is a real, measured risk on long flights, and monitoring it is the responsibility of the agencies' medical services.