NASA Names Artemis III Crew for 2027 Test Flight

NASA has unveiled the four-member crew for the Artemis III mission, a 2027 test flight designed to validate key technologies for future human lunar landings.

The crew consists of US astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, along with Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. The mission will not travel to the moon, but will carry out a series of challenging maneuvers in low Earth orbit.

During the flight, the Orion capsule will test rendezvous and docking procedures with test versions of lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX. NASA wants to assess the systems before using them on future expeditions.

The Artemis program is a major US effort to return humans to the moon and comes as China pursues its own plans for crewed lunar missions.

Parmitano’s participation is also significant: he is the first European Space Agency astronaut to be assigned to an Artemis mission.

(reuters, mja)