NASA has named the crew for its upcoming Artemis III mission, which the space agency says will be one of the most complex missions in history.
The four-person crew will consist of NASA commander Randy Bresnik, ESA astronaut and pilot Luca Parmitano, and NASA mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, alongside NASA backup crew member Robert Hines. Targeted for 2027, this next phase of NASA’s moon program will launch astronauts into low Earth orbit to test one or both commercial lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
If the orbital test goes according to plan, it paves the way for the next mission, Artemis IV, which in 2028 will send Americans to land on the moon for the first time in 54 years — assuming NASA sticks to its latest Artemis timetable.
The mission is set to last almost two weeks — longer than Artemis II’s 10-day flight. This will give NASA more time to test key life support systems, as well as in-flight docking.
NASA has a lot more riding on Artemis III than its human crew. The space agency has an ambitious plan to establish a permanent presence on the moon in the coming years, but to get astronauts back on the lunar surface, it is relying on SpaceX and Blue Origin, each of which have been assigned to develop a lunar lander.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story, and we will add more details on the mission and crew as we get them.
