Nasa has a plan to put the first woman on the surface of the moon by 2024 in a project the US space agency is calling Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the moon and twin sister of the god Apollo.
"The first woman will be an American on the surface of the moon in five years," Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said in April at the Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs. "That is an extreme declaration and a charge that we are going to live up to at Nasa."
Bettina Inclán, Nasa's communications director, added, "The last person walked on the moon in 1972. No woman has ever walked on the lunar surface."
The plan is for the first woman and next man to land at the moon's southern pole, a place no human has gone before.
A sustainable moon base (ostensibly by 2028) could serve as a necessary pit stop once Mars missions begin, said Nasa.
The first woman in space was Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963. Twenty years later, in June 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Mae Jemison followed in 1992 as the first black woman in space.
The identity of the first woman on the moon is as yet unknown.
One possible candidate is Anne McClain, a former army helicopter pilot, who returned from the International Space Station (ISS) last month. Another favourite for the job is engineer Christina Koch, who is currently at the ISS and is due to set the record for the longest time a woman has spent in space at 11 months.
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