NASA Names Artemis III Crew, Plans 2027 Earth Orbit Test Flight
7 verified3 unconfirmed
NASA announced the four-member crew for the Artemis III mission on Tuesday, a test flight in low Earth orbit scheduled for 2027 that will help prepare for a return to the lunar surface. The crew includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik as commander, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio as mission specialists, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano as pilot. Bob Hines was named as the backup crew member. The mission will test docking and life-support systems with lunar lander prototypes from private companies Blue Origin and SpaceX. The approximately two-week flight is designed to validate hardware and procedures ahead of Artemis IV, the first planned crewed lunar landing since 1972, targeted for 2028. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the crew and described the growing number of spacecraft in orbit as the beginning of “Earth’s first starfleet.”
What’s verified
The Artemis III crew consists of commander Randy Bresnik (NASA), pilot Luca Parmitano (ESA), and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio (both NASA).
Bob Hines (NASA) was named as the backup crew member.
The mission is a test flight in low Earth orbit scheduled for 2027, lasting about two weeks.
The crew will test docking procedures and systems with lunar lander prototypes from Blue Origin (Blue Moon) and SpaceX (Starship).
Artemis IV, the first crewed lunar landing mission since Apollo, is planned for 2028.
Frank Rubio holds the record for the longest single-duration spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut at 371 days.
Luca Parmitano is the first ESA astronaut assigned to an Artemis mission.
Not yet confirmed
The Guardian reports that a May 28 launchpad explosion in Florida destroyed Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and that Blue Origin and NASA officials expressed confidence the rocket and pad would be ready for Artemis III. The NASA release does not mention this anomaly.
The Guardian describes the crew as all-male; the NASA release does not specify gender.
Details about crew nicknames, personal anecdotes (e.g., Parmitano’s 2013 spacesuit incident, Bresnik’s child born in space) appear only in The Guardian.
Key figures
Jared Isaacman (NASA Administrator), Randy Bresnik (Commander), Luca Parmitano (Pilot), Andre Douglas (Mission Specialist), Frank Rubio (Mission Specialist), Bob Hines (Backup Crew Member), Josef Aschbacher (ESA Director General), John Couluris (Blue Origin Senior Vice President), Jeremy Parsons (NASA Acting Deputy Associate Administrator)
Sources: The Guardian, NASA
