NASA selected three American astronauts and one Italian astronaut on Tuesday to form the crew for its upcoming Artemis III mission. The flight will serve as an orbital docking test next year to evaluate moon landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the crew during an event in Houston. The members are Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, Randy Bresnik, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. The mission is scheduled to launch late next year.
Artemis III will involve a complex series of launches using powerful rockets, according to program manager Jeremy Parsons. The two-week flight will remain in low-Earth orbit and will not travel to the moon. It will test docking systems between Orion, Starship, and Blue Moon.
Bresnik, a veteran of three prior spaceflights, was named mission commander. The crew includes both experienced and first-time flyers, with Parmitano becoming the first European to join an Artemis mission.
The test comes as NASA advances plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket suffered an explosion last month, while SpaceX recently conducted a test flight of an upgraded Starship. Both companies continue development work to meet the mission timeline.
Italy welcomed Parmitano’s selection as a positive step following changes to NASA’s lunar architecture.
