NASA Artemis III Crew Members Named For 2027 Test Flight: What To Know In FL

HOUSTON, TX — NASA on Tuesday identified the four Artemis III crew members who will soon board a test flight ahead of a historic mission to the lunar South Pole.

The Space Launch System rocket is set to launch next year for two weeks with NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik acting as commander and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano as pilot on board the aircraft.

NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio were selected as mission specialists, while NASA astronaut Bob Hines will be a backup crew member.

Hines will be a replacement if a primary crew member is unable to take the trip to space. His assignment is a first for ESA and the Artemis program.

NASA is hopeful the mission will be of assistance in sending the first humans to Mars.

The SLS rocket will propel the manned Orion spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

The crew will travel to Earth's low orbit to test Orion's rendezvous and docking capabilities with test versions from at least one American commercial human landing system crafted by Blue Origin and SpaceX, according to NASA.

The astronauts will undergo immediate training. A launch date was not specified.

The test flight will be held in preparation for Artemis IV, NASA's inaugural "planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028," the space agency stated.

The announcement came after astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen returned to Earth on April 10, following a trip to the far side of the moon. The Integrity crew members made history in traveling the farthest into space than any other humans.

“Today we take another bold step in humanity’s return to the moon, building on the extraordinary foundation laid by the Artemis II astronauts. Their achievements reignited global excitement for exploration, and now they pass the torch to the Artemis III team, Randy, Luca, Frank and Andre," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a news release.

"Artemis III will demonstrate the power of American innovation and international partnership as we test complex rendezvous and docking operations and advance the technologies that will one day carry us deeper into the solar system. This mission will require the most awe-inspiring coordination of heavy-lift rocket launches in history, drawing on the talent and capability of teams across government and the spaceflight community. The Artemis III astronauts, alongside ESA and our international partners, and the tens of thousands of the best and brightest across the agency and industry, are ushering in a new Golden Age of exploration carrying forward the hopes and dreams of the next generation just as the Apollo astronauts did for so many of us.”

Meet the Artemis III Crew

(All details are reported by NASA)

Bresnik

• California native who has been to space twice
• Graduated from The Citadel, earning a degree in mathematics
• Selected as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class
• Retired U.S. Marine colonel
• Has more than 7,000 flight hours in 95 types of aircraft
• Launched on space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station in 2009
• Launched on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the space station, serving as a flight engineer for the station’s Expedition 52 and commander of Expedition 53
• Named a fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots
• Has served as assistant to the chief of the Astronaut Office since 2018

Parmitano

• Received a bachelor's degree in political sciences from the University of Naples Federico II and a master's degree in experimental flight test engineering from the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace in Toulouse, France
• Graduated from the Italian Air Force Academy
• Became a test pilot in 2007
• Selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009
• Promoted to colonel in 2019
• Has more than 2,000 flight hours across 40 types of aircraft
• Has been to space twice
• Has served as a flight engineer on the Italian Space Agency's inaugural long-duration mission to the ISS in 2013
• Returned to the space station in 2019, serving as commander of Expedition 61 (third European and first Italian to do so)

Rubio

• Florida native who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 2998
• Received a doctor of medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2010
• Served at least 28 years in the Army as an aviator, a physician and an astronaut
• Selected as a 2017 astronaut candidate
• Has been to space once
• Launched on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from Baikonur to the ISS in September 2022 and returned to Earth in September 2023, shattering the record for the longest single-duration spaceflight by an American astronaut with 371 days in orbit

Douglas

• Virginia native who earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
• Has four postgraduate degrees from various institutions, including a doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University
• Previously worked in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• Served as a backup and closeout crew member for Artemis II
• Selected as a 2021 astronaut candidate
• Has never been to space

Hines

• Served as a research pilot at NASA's Johnson Space Center
• Serves a colonel in the Air Force
• Selected as a 2017 astronaut candidate
• Served as pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the ISS
• Has more than 27 years of experience as an instructor pilot, fighter pilot and test pilot.

“Artemis III will push the boundaries of spacecraft operations in orbit. 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,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, said in the release.

“At the same time, ESA’s European Service Module will once again provide the critical capabilities that power Orion, demonstrating Europe’s enduring role at the very heart of the Artemis program. The news out of Houston today is a powerful recognition of ESA’s role in enabling humanity’s return to the moon – and a key advancement in our partnership with NASA. Europeans can take pride in being part of this exciting journey.”

Plans for the two-week mission are advancing, NASA said Tuesday.

Engineers will spend the summer linking the Orion crew module to its service module and integrate its docking system, which is set to catch air for the first time.

Other preparations include further heat shield testing, rocket processing and the creation of a crewed lunar version of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander.

SpaceX is generating a crewed lunar lander version of its Starship. Test articles are being constructed for Artemis III.

NASA intends to quicken production, improve the program's supply chain and increase mission cadence.

After undocking from Starship following a series of checkouts and tests, Orion will head home and splash down in the Pacific, where Navy and NASA teams will be waiting.