June 9 (UPI) — NASA on Tuesday announced the four crew members for the Artemis III mission, which is planned for 2027 and will include many tests in Earth orbit.
The crew members are Randy Bresnik, commander; Luca Parmitano, pilot; Andre Douglas, mission specialist; and Frank Rubio, mission specialist. Bresnik, Douglas and Rubio are NASA astronauts; Parmitano is a European Space Agency astronaut. NASA astronaut Bob Hines is a backup crew member.
“Today we take another bold step in humanity’s return to the moon, building on the extraordinary foundation laid by the Artemis II astronauts,” said Jason Isaacman, NASA administrator. “Their achievements reignited global excitement for exploration, and now they pass the torch to the Artemis III team, Randy, Luca, Frank and Andre.”
Parmitano is the first ESA astronaut on an Artemis mission. Artemis I was an uncrewed mission. Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen was a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.
“Artemis III will push the boundaries of spacecraft operations in orbit,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the ESA. “Luca’s assignment as pilot reflects the depth of European expertise in human spaceflight and draws on his extensive operational experience in high-pressure situations.”
NASA also released further details Tuesday about the Artemis III mission. The Orion spacecraft will launch with the crew from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and attain low Earth orbit. If systems check out accordingly, the crew will then perform tests in rendezvous and docking with test versions of commercial human landing systems being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.
NASA said the mission will also include “a dramatic multi-launch campaign of the world’s more powerful rockets” taking the crew and landing systems to space.
NASA said the crew members, who are expected to be in space for about two weeks on the mission, will begin training on the Orion spacecraft systems immediately and assist in development and operations of the test versions of the landing systems.
This will be the third mission to space for Bresnik, a California native, who has flown on the space shuttle Atlantis and the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft to the International Space Station. Artemis III will be Parmitano’s third mission in space as well. He was the first Italian to command the ISS and has logged more than 2,000 flight hours on 40 types of aircraft.
Rubio, a Florida native, is making his second trip to space. From September 2022 to September 2023, he spent 371 days in orbit on the ISS. Douglas is making his first trip to space with Artemis III. He was a backup crew member for Artemis II and is a native of Virginia.
NASA plans Artemis IV, in 2028, to be the first crewed mission to the lunar South Pole.
