NASA has unveiled the four astronauts selected for the Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch as early as late 2027. The crew consists of veteran astronaut Randy Bresnik as commander, Italian Luca Parmitano from the European Space Agency as pilot, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio.
Unlike earlier plans for a lunar landing, Artemis III will serve as a two-week test mission in low-Earth orbit. Its primary objective is to validate key technologies and procedures needed for future moon landings, particularly the docking of NASA’s Orion spacecraft with lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA hopes the mission will reduce risks ahead of a crewed lunar landing targeted for 2028. The flight will also provide a first opportunity to evaluate critical systems aboard the new lunar landers, marking an important step in the Artemis programme’s goal of returning humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era.
This post was published on 9 June 2026 21:43
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