NASA has revealed the crew for Artemis III, the mission that will return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century. Astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, and Frank Rubio, alongside ESA’s Luca Parmitano, will spend two weeks in low Earth orbit testing spacecraft systems critical to the 2028 landing at the Lunar South Pole.
The announcement comes nearly two weeks after the explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the mission “unlike anything we’ve ever undertaken,” describing it as a multi-launch campaign that will test rendezvous, docking, and interoperability across multiple systems close to Earth before the lunar return.
The crew will practice maneuvers using the Orion spacecraft, launched atop the Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center. They will test compatibility with two competing landers: Blue Origin’s Blue Moon and SpaceX’s Starship, each vying to carry astronauts from orbit to the lunar surface.
This mission architecture represents a shift from the Apollo-era single-rocket approach toward a modular, multi-vehicle strategy. Success would validate NASA’s ability to coordinate complex orbital operations between commercial and government systems, a capability essential for sustained lunar exploration and eventual Mars missions.
The chosen astronauts bring deep experience: Bresnik is a retired Marine colonel and veteran of two spaceflights; Douglas is a NASA astronaut and former naval officer; Rubio holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American; and Parmitano, an Italian ESA astronaut, previously commanded the International Space Station.