NASA names 4 astronauts for Artemis III test mission in low-Earth orbit
4 verified2 unconfirmed
NASA revealed the four-person crew for its Artemis III mission during a Tuesday announcement in Houston, Texas. The crew includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, along with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. The mission will keep the Orion crew capsule in low-Earth orbit, where it will practice docking with two commercial lunar landers. Artemis III is a critical test flight that will gather data ahead of NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon’s surface as early as 2028. This step follows the record-setting Artemis II mission that circled the moon two months earlier. The crew’s work will help validate systems required for future human lunar landings.
What’s verified
NASA announced the Artemis III crew on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Houston, Texas.
The crew consists of NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano.
The mission will operate in low-Earth orbit, testing the Orion spacecraft’s rendezvous and docking capabilities with two commercial lunar landers.
Artemis III is a test flight that will inform future human landings on the moon.
Not yet confirmed
The timing of Artemis III relative to Artemis II appears in only one source, which says the announcement came two months after Artemis II’s record-breaking trip that surpassed the maximum distance of Apollo 13.
Many details about the crew’s backgrounds, the mission timeline (including separate launches of Blue Origin’s and SpaceX’s landers), a recent Blue Origin accident, and NASA’s target launch date are reported by only one source.
Key figures
Randy Bresnik – NASA astronaut, Artemis III commander
Frank Rubio – NASA astronaut, mission specialist
Andre Douglas – NASA astronaut, mission specialist
Luca Parmitano – European Space Agency astronaut, mission pilot
Jared Isaacman – NASA administrator (mentioned in one source)
Jeremy Parsons – NASA official (mentioned in one source)
Reid Wiseman – Artemis II commander (mentioned in one source)
Sources: The Guardian, NPR
