A woman will land on the moon in 2024. Ever wonder why it’s taken so long to put a woman on the moon? To start, you could listen to Making Space: The Final Frontier, a podcast about the long, slow rise of the women now running the NASA space program. From the Mercury 13 who trained way back in the 1960s to the woman who will be in the control room when NASA launches the Armetis initiative; it is amazing to hear how far woman have come and what they have achieved for the space program.

This year, NASA will start the Armetis program (named for Apollo’s twin sister), a mission that will not just take NASA back to the moon but create a permanent base there. Their mission in 2024 will see a woman touch down on the lunar surface for the first time. Then a multi-national project will help humans settle there permanently as a launch pad for a trip to Mars within the next decade. To learn more about the how the Armetis project will bring a long term human presence to the moon watch below: