NASA introduced the four astronauts of the next Artemis moon program mission on Tuesday, kicking off a year or more of mission-specific training for the Artemis III crew.They are expected to launch into Earth orbit next year to test rendezvous and docking procedures with moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin — a critical milestone before the U.S. can send astronauts back to the moon for landing in 2028.Meet the Artemis III crewAdvertisementAdvertisementNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the crew members at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. They are:Commander Randy “Komrade” BresnikPilot Luca ParmitanoMission specialist Frank RubioMission specialist Andre DouglasBob Hines was named the backup crew member.NASA introduced the Artemis III crew members at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on June 9, 2026. L-R: Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas. / Credit: NASA TVBresnik, 58, a former Marine fighter pilot and “TOPGUN” graduate who logged 149 days in space during a space shuttle flight in 2009 and a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station in 2017.Parmitano, 49, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, was the first Italian commander of the space station and an Italian air force test pilot.AdvertisementAdvertisementDouglas, 40, is a test engineer and Coast Guard reserve commander who will be making his first space flight on Artemis III. He served as a backup crew member for the recently completed Artemis II around-the-moon missionRubio, 49, is an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot and a family-medicine physician. He spent a U.S.-record 371 days in space aboard the International Space Station in 2022-23.”We are certainly humbled as a crew,” Bresnik told the crowd at the Johnson Space Center, “being that unifying link between the phenomenal Artemis II mission we just had two months ago and the Artemis IV mission that will follow ours, where we will again … land humans on another celestial body.”What the Artemis III mission will doAdvertisementAdvertisementLaunching atop a Space Launch System rocket in an Orion capsule, the Bresnik’s crew will practice chasing down one moon lander at a time to make sure rendezvous and docking procedures work as planned before a future moon landing when those procedures will have to be carried out in lunar orbit.The flight will pose a major test for mission managers and engineers with NASA, SpaceX and Blue Origin, who will have to launch multiple heavy-lift rockets in a matter of days and then coordinate their flights in a multi-vehicle sequence of tightly scripted maneuvers.”This test flight will enable us to prove we can carry out highly choreographed operations with our (commerc …
