Washington D.C: In a development that may inspire new generation women engineers, NASA has selected Catherine Koerner to lead the development and operations of the agency’s newest spacecraft that will carry astronauts on Artemis missions to the Moon and return them safely to Earth.

Koerner will be based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

As the Orion programme manager, Koerner will be responsible for oversight of design, development and testing of the Orion spacecraft, as well as spacecraft manufacturing already underway at locations across the country and in Europe for ESA (European Space Agency).

Orion, the Space Launch System (SLS), and Exploration Ground Systems programs are foundational elements of NASA’s Artemis program.

Artemis I will be the first integrated flight test of Orion and the SLS next year.

Artemis II will follow as the first human mission, taking astronauts farther into space than ever before.

On Artemis III, astronauts will set foot on the Moon by 2024.