NASA announced on Tuesday the group of astronauts who will crew the Artemis III mission as part of the space agency’s broader program to return humans to the surface of the moon — and eventually journey to Mars.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed that the following four astronauts have been assigned to the test flight: mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, commander Randy Bresnik and pilot Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency.
The backup crew member is Bob Hines, who most recently served as the pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the ISS.
“While Artemis II was all about moon joy, Artemis III will be all about Earth joy,” Nicky Fox, NASA’s head of science, said during Tuesday’s announcement at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Orion.
(Cory Huston/NASA)
The main goal of Artemis III is to test the Orion spacecraft’s ability to rendezvous with and dock with two lunar landers. The test flight will occur in low Earth orbit to discover any issues closer to home.
Learn more about how Artemis III fits into NASA’s plan to get back to the moon — and beyond
The lunar landers are being developed and built by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
During Tuesday’s announcement, NASA also revealed the plan for Artemis III: The Blue Origin lander will be the first to launch, followed by the Artemis III crew, who will be in the Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. Once in orbit, Blue Origin and Orion will dock for several days to conduct tests before undocking from each other. Then, SpaceX’s Starship will launch, rendezvous and dock with Orion for a day. Afterward, the crew will return to Earth aboard Orion. The Artemis III mission will last about two weeks in total.
NASA needs the lunar landers to have the ability to transfer astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon for future Artemis IV and V missions.
The rocket that is supposed to carry Blue Origin’s lunar lander to space, the New Glenn, blew up on May 28 during a ground test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The explosion damaged the only launchpad available to Blue Origin. Repairs could take months or even longer, posing a challenge to NASA’s accelerated timeline to launch Artemis III in late 2027.
Despite the recent setbacks, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in his opening remarks that the Blue Origin lander will take part in Artemis III.
SpaceX has also had its issues. The last test flight of Starship in May was mostly successful, but it was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration after the booster stage malfunctioned and crashed in the Gulf of Mexico.
The four Artemis III astronauts follow in the space boots of the Artemis II crew: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, who broke the all-time record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth as they flew around the moon.
As groundbreaking and inspiring as it was in its own right, Artemis II was, above all, also a test flight. Artemis II demonstrated a successful launch of the Space Launch System rocket to get the astronauts into space. Then the astronauts tested the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, which will eventually carry Artemis IV astronauts to the moon.
Left, Artemis II NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman hand off a ceremonial baton to the new Artemis III crew members on Tuesday.
(RONALDO SCHEMIDT via Getty Images)
Wiseman, Glover and Koch congratulated the Artemis III crew on stage during Tuesday’s announcement. “We just want to say how completely fired up we are for you!” Wiseman said.
Wiseman then passed a sprint relay baton to Bresnik and said, from one commander to another, “You got the controls.”
Bresnik replied, “While this may look like just a baton, it feels like a big flaming hot Olympic torch” lit by the Artemis II crew.
Get to know the Artemis III astronauts below.
From left: Andre Douglas, Luca Parmitano, Randy Bresnik and Frank Rubio.
(NASA via AP)
Andre Douglas, Artemis III mission specialist
Douglas, 40, was selected by NASA in the 2021 astronaut candidate class. He’s a test engineer and a Coast Guard reserve commander. He previously served as a backup crew member for the Artemis II mission. Artemis III will be Douglas’s first space flight.
He was born in Miami, but grew up in Virginia. Douglas earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Coast Guard Academy and four postgraduate degrees from various institutions. He and his wife, Rachel, have two sons.
Frank Rubio, Artemis III mission specialist
Rubio, 49, is a family medicine physician and an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He was selected by NASA to join the 2017 astronaut candidate class. He spent 371 days in space aboard the International Space Station from 2022 to 2023, breaking the record for the longest single-duration spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut. Artemis III will be Rubio’s second trip to space.
He was born in Los Angeles, but considers Miami his hometown. Rubio graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1998 and earned a doctor of medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2010. In the U.S. Army, he served more than 28 years as an aviator, physician and astronaut. He and his wife, Deborah, have four children.
Luca Parmitano, Artemis III pilot
Parmitano, 49, is an Italian astronaut for the European Space Agency. He is a colonel and test pilot for the Italian Air Force and was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. He was the first Italian commander of the International Space Station.
Artemis III will be Parmitano’s third space flight.
Parmitano was born in Paternò, Sicily, but considers Catania his hometown. He is married to Marta Guidarelli and has two daughters from a previous marriage.
Randy Bresnik, Artemis III commander
Bresnik, 58, is a retired Marine colonel and was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004. He has logged more than 7,000 hours in 95 types of aircraft and an additional 3,600 hours in spacecraft.
This will be Bresnik’s third mission to space.
He has served as assistant to the chief of the Astronaut Office for exploration since 2018 and oversees the development and testing of spacecraft and systems that will operate during Artemis missions.
Bresnik was born in Fort Knox, Ky., but considers Santa Monica, Calif., to be his hometown. He and his wife, Rebecca, have a son and a daughter.
