NASA will send a female astronaut to the moon for the first time. The US space outlined a US$28 billion plan to land on the moon for the first time in 48 years.

As part of a programme called Artemis, Nasa will send a man and a woman to the moon’s surface.

The astronauts will travel in a capsule called Orion that will launch on a powerful rocket called SLS.

Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine outlined how the large sum of money needed for the programme will be used.

“The $28bn represents the costs associated for the next four years in the Artemis programme to land on the Moon. SLS funding, Orion funding, the human landing system and of course the spacesuits – all of those things that are part of the Artemis programme are included.”

But he explained: “The budget request that we have before the House and the Senate right now includes $3.2bn for 2021 for the human landing system. It is critically important that we get that $3.2bn.”

In July 2019, Bridenstine told CNN that the first woman astronaut to walk on the Moon in 2024 would be someone “who has been proven, somebody who has flown, somebody who has been on the International Space Station already”.

He also said it would be someone already in the astronaut corps.