Two Coloradans are on the short list to travel to the moon.

NASA Astronauts Matthew Dominick of Wheat Ridge and Jessica Watkins of Lafayette were among 18 astronauts named Wednesday to the Artemis Program, the next lunar mission.

NASA plans to have the next man and first woman on the moon by 2024. 

Each members of the Artemis Team through NASA’s astronaut corps brings diverse expertise and background to the task.  

Dominick, a former Navy test pilot, has over 1,600 hours of flight time in 28 different aircraft; while Watkins focused her Ph.D research on large landslides on Mars and Earth.

Although their stories and paths to NASA are different, there is only one goal.

“Lets go to the moon,” Dominick said.

– Matthew Dominick: Colorado man assigned to NASA’s Artemis Team and could potentially be sent to the moon

– The first woman to walk on the moon could be a Coloradan woman