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US Vice President Mike Pence has announced the 18-strong cadre of astronauts who will be available for NASA's new moon missions.

Mr Pence made the announcement, which was in advance by Ars Technica, in Florida as part of an update on NASA's Artemis programme.

"I give you the heroes who will carry us to the Moon and beyond - the Artemis Generation," he said.

"It is amazing to think that the next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read. The Artemis Team astronauts are the future of American space exploration - and that future is bright."

The 18 Artemis team members are: Joseph Acaba, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Matthew Dominick, Victor Glover, Warren Hoburg, Jonny Kim, Christina Hammock Koch, Kjell Lindgren, Nicole Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, Jasmin Moghbeli, Kate Rubins, Frank Rubio, Scott Tingle, Jessica Watkins and Stephanie Wilson.

They won't all be going to the moon, but will be available for crew assignments when the schedule for these is established.

The group members are mostly in their 30s or 40s, with the oldest 55 and the youngest 32.

Half of them have spaceflight experience and two - Kate Rubins and Victor Glover - are currently at the International Space Station.

The two astronauts who performed the world's first all-female spacewalk last year made the cut: Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.

Only two - Joe Acaba and Stephanie Wilson - flew on NASA's old space shuttles.

Mr Acaba said after the announcement: "The history is awesome, but we're here to look toward the future."

It follows an audit report by the space agency's office of inspector general (OIG), which warned NASA's plans to to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 are "unlikely" to be achieved.

NASA said: "The agency's modern lunar exploration program will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade".

According to Ars Technica, the first moon-landing mission, Artemis III, may carry up to four astronauts to the lunar surface, but is unlikely to fly before 2026.

The timeline for these missions will depend on how much support the incoming Biden administration is prepared to invest in NASA's exploration activities.

Ars reported the suggestion that the Pence-led meeting "suggests it will be something of a 'victory lap' for the Trump administration to note its accomplishments in civil and military space".

The online magazine also reported that the public announcement caused some concern for NASA's Astronaut Office based in Houston.

Although NASA didn't officially comment, Ars reported there was concern "it would essentially create a group of 'favourites' within the office, undermining a sense of unity shared among the space fliers".

NASA's Artemis programme - named after the mythological sister of Apollo, the first moon mission's namesake - aimed to take the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface by 2024, although that date is now in question.

While president-elect Joe Biden has named the members of his NASA transition team, he hasn't yet set out his administration's priorities for the space agency or the Artemis programme.

Alongside the astronaut landings, NASA had intended to establish a "Lunar Gateway" outpost, which will be orbiting the moon by the mid-2020s, and then lunar landers to deliver cargo to the surface by the late 2020s.

The OIG report stated that due to numerous challenges facing the Lunar Gateway mission, "we anticipate further schedule delays and cost increases, making the Gateway unlikely to be available for the planned 2024 lunar landing".

It is not clear whether these missions will continue at all or if they will postponed.

Some reports expect that, as president, Mr Biden would re-prioritise the agency's climate change research, refunding missions which the Trump administration sidelined.

His administration could then push the lunar landing date back until 2028, in-line with a proposed bill from the US House science committee which endorsed plans to venture to Mars, but on a longer timescale.

The OIG report stated: "Over the past decade, our oversight work has found NASA consistently struggling to address each of these significant issues and the Artemis mission's accelerated timetable will likely further exacerbate these challenges."

The agency had always acknowledged that the 2024 date was an "ambitious timeline", noting that spaceflight systems "can take six to eight years to develop" when there were less than five years to go for the agency to meet its 2024 target.