On Tuesday, NASA named the four astronauts who will fly aboard Artemis III, a key 2027 test mission designed to validate critical spacecraft operations needed for the agency’s return to the moon later in the decade.
The crew consists of NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, who will serve as commander, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, along with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who will act as pilot. A backup crew member has also been assigned as training begins immediately ahead of the mission.
Artemis III is planned as a complex orbital test flight rather than a lunar landing. The mission will launch aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy Space Center and carry the Orion spacecraft into Earth orbit. There, the crew will conduct rendezvous and docking demonstrations with commercially developed lunar landing systems being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA officials described the mission as a critical integration step between government and commercial spacecraft. The test will verify procedures required for future lunar surface missions, including Artemis IV, which is currently expected to carry astronauts to the Moon.
NASA said training will begin immediately, with the crew working closely with engineers on Orion systems and mission simulations. The agency emphasized that Artemis III represents one of the most technically complex human spaceflight tests attempted to date, involving multiple vehicles and commercial partners operating in sequence.
Artemis III follows the successful Artemis II mission, which flew astronauts around the Moon and returned them safely to Earth.
The mission remains scheduled for 2027, though NASA has acknowledged that development timelines for commercial landers could affect scheduling.
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