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NASA has unveiled the four astronauts selected for the Artemis III mission, marking another major step toward humanity's return to the moon.
The crew includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, along with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. The announcement was made by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Tuesday, June 9, at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Artemis III is expected to launch aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission aims to test critical systems required for future lunar landings by carrying out a series of objectives in low Earth orbit. NASA has indicated that the mission could begin as early as 2027.
For Douglas, a test engineer and Coast Guard Reserve commander from Virginia, Artemis III will mark his first journey into space. Selected as part of NASA's 2021 astronaut candidate class, he previously served as a backup and closeout crew member for Artemis II.
Rubio, who was born in Florida and spent more than 28 years serving in the U.S. Army, will be making his second trip to space. During his first mission, he set a record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut, spending 371 consecutive days in orbit between September 2022 and September 2023.
Bresnik and Parmitano will each be embarking on their third spaceflight. Bresnik, a retired U.S. Marine colonel from California, joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2004. He holds a mathematics degree from The Citadel and has accumulated more than 7,000 flight hours across 95 aircraft types. He has also served as assistant to the chief of NASA's Astronaut Office for exploration since 2018.
Parmitano, a father of two, made history as the first Italian astronaut to command the International Space Station. His experience will play a key role as the crew prepares for the demanding mission.
NASA astronaut Bob Hines has been named as the backup crew member and will train alongside the primary team.
The announcement follows the successful completion of Artemis II, which splashed down off the California coast on April 10. That crew included NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. During the mission, they completed a lunar test flight, traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them and captured remarkable images of the moon's far side.
At the ceremony, Wiseman symbolically passed the baton to Bresnik, signaling the transition to Artemis III. Training for the mission begins immediately as NASA continues its push to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
