NASA has announced the four astronauts who will join the Artemis III mission, a key two-week flight that will test various technologies considered vital to putting astronauts back on the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

Artemis III Mission Objectives

The primary goal of the flight is to reduce risk heading into an actual lunar touchdown, which NASA hopes will take place as soon as 2028. The crew will launch from Florida aboard their Orion capsule and hang out in low-Earth orbit.

The Artemis III crew includes three NASA astronauts: Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, and Randy Bresnik, as well as Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano with the European Space Agency. Bresnik will serve as commander of the Artemis III flight.

Astronaut Backgrounds

Randy Bresnik, nicknamed Komrade, joined NASA in 2004 and has flown missions on NASA’s space shuttle and Russia’s Soyuz capsule. Andre Douglas joined NASA in 2021 and has never before been assigned to a mission, but he did train as backup for the Artemis II mission. Frank Rubio joined NASA in 2017 and first reached space on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2022.

Luca Parmitano was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and has flown to space twice in 2013 and 2019, conducting a total of six spacewalks and serving as the first-ever Italian International Space Station commander.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.