NASA will send your name around the moon. Here’s how to register

CNN
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You may have little chance of traveling to outer space, but at least your name can go.

NASA Collect contacts to be placed on a flash drive It was sent into space aboard the Orion spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch later this year.

The initiative is part of the agency’s unmanned Artemis I mission, the Artemis program’s first mission to eventually return astronauts to the Moon.

It’s free to add your name to a flash drive, said NASA spokeswoman Catherine Hambleton.

“We hope that this is a way to get people excited, bring them up, and inspire the next generation, the generation of Artemis,” Hambleton said.

For this particular mission, the spacecraft’s flash drive should be packed about a month before the launch date, which will determine how long NASA will accept requests, she said.

No launch date has been announced, Hambleton said, but the space agency is setting a date in May or June. She added that NASA plans to announce more details about the launch date in the coming weeks.

Since opening applications earlier this month, NASA has already received more than 1 million names, according to Hambleton.

“We hope to maintain that momentum for a little over a week ago…to gather more names and generate more enthusiasm from people around the world who will be on the move virtually,” she said.

This first mission in the Artemis program, which will not carry any humans, will test NASA’s latest deep space exploration systems.

The Orion spacecraft will launch on the world’s most powerful rocket from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It will travel more than 280,000 miles (450,616 kilometers) from Earth on a four- to six-week mission that will extend thousands of miles past the moon – the farthest point ever traveled by a spacecraft designed for humans, According to NASA.

After the spacecraft completes its orbit around the Moon, Orion will attempt to land safely off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

Upon returning to Earth, the spacecraft had traveled more than 1.3 million miles (2,092,147 kilometers), according to NASA.

NASA agency The second task It will test different parts of Orion, and will include humans on board.