Overview
- On Tuesday June 9 NASA announced the four-person Artemis III crew: commander Randy Bresnik, pilot Luca Parmitano, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio.
- Artemis III is scheduled for 2027 and will run about two weeks to test rendezvous and docking between Orion and two privately developed lunar landers rather than perform a crewed surface landing.
- The two landers to be tested are being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin and will launch on separate rockets, so their engineering and launch schedules will directly affect when surface missions can proceed.
- Luca Parmitano becomes the first European assigned to an Artemis mission and brings extensive ISS experience, including a risky spacewalk that flooded his helmet, which agencies cite as evidence of his operational skill.
- NASA reworked the Artemis sequence in February after cost overruns and expert warnings about risk, adding this extra test flight and shifting planned surface operations to Artemis IV and V with dates that remain contingent on partner readiness and negotiations with ESA.