According to Space, during a press conference on June 9 at the Johnson Space Center, NASA revealed the four crew members of the Artemis 3 mission, including NASA commander Randy Bresnik, European Space Agency (ESA) pilot Luca Parmitano, and NASA mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, along with backup member Robert Hines.
Scheduled for 2027, the Artemis 3 mission will send astronauts into low Earth orbit to test one or both of the commercial lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. If the orbital tests are successful, it will pave the way for the Artemis 4 mission in 2028, placing Americans on the Moon’s surface for the first time in 54 years.
Each Artemis 3 astronaut has extensive experience in aviation engineering, piloting, space operations, and spacecraft development, contributing to the mission’s success. The crew was selected from a pool of potential candidates, including the Artemis astronaut team of 2020 and more recent astronaut classes.
The mission commander for Artemis 3 is Randy Bresnik, who joined NASA’s astronaut class in 2004 after serving as a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2009, Bresnik spent nearly 11 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), serving as a mission specialist on NASA’s STS-129 mission aboard the Atlantis shuttle. Recently, Bresnik has been the Assistant Director of the Astronaut Office, managing hardware testing for the Artemis program.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will serve as the pilot for Artemis 3. Before becoming an ESA astronaut in 2009, Parmitano was a test pilot in the Italian Air Force, accumulating over 2,000 flight hours on more than 40 types of aircraft.
NASA selected astronaut Andre Douglas as a specialist for the Artemis 3 mission, and he was previously a backup astronaut for Artemis 2. Douglas joined NASA’s astronaut class in 2021 after earning a Ph.D. in systems engineering from George Washington University and serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. Artemis 3 will be Douglas’s first spaceflight mission.
Astronaut Frank Rubio was also selected as a specialist for the Artemis 3 mission. Rubio gained notoriety after spending over a year aboard the ISS following a serious coolant leak on his Soyuz spacecraft, making him the NASA astronaut with the longest spaceflight record at 371 days. Prior to that, Rubio was a military helicopter pilot with over 1,100 flight hours.
Bob Hines, the backup astronaut for Artemis 3, joined NASA’s astronaut class in 2017 after serving 23 years in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot and instructor. Hines flew in space on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the ISS in 2022, spending 170 days there.
The Artemis 3 crew from left to right includes Andre Douglas, Luca Parmitano, Randy Bresnik, and Frank Rubio. Photo: NASA
NASA aims to conduct the Artemis mission in the latter half of 2027. Artemis 3 marks a significant step towards the goal of returning astronauts to the Moon and establishing a permanent base for NASA. If all goes according to plan, the four Artemis 3 astronauts will rendezvous and connect the Orion spacecraft with one or both of the developing lunar landers. This mission will also allow NASA to test some of the most advanced hardware in the field of space exploration.
The Orion spacecraft carrying the Artemis 3 crew will launch on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket into low Earth orbit, meeting Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship. The goal is to practice maneuvering and connecting between the vehicles. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have been contracted by NASA to develop lunar landers, but have encountered some setbacks that have delayed the manufacturing and testing processes.
If Blue Origin can timely address the damage to its launch infrastructure following the explosion on May 28, the company will launch the Blue Moon lander on a New Glenn rocket. As Blue Moon travels to low Earth orbit, the Artemis 3 crew will connect the Orion spacecraft with this lander over two days. During the connection, they will enter the lander and check its life support systems. Following that, the astronauts will detach from Blue Moon and begin similar operations with SpaceX’s Starship. Orion will rendezvous with Starship for a day to test the connection procedures.
Another objective of Artemis 3 is to allow astronauts to try on the new space suits designed for extravehicular activities (EVA) on the Moon’s surface. Axiom Space in Houston is designing the EVA suits for the Artemis program.
According to Live Science, originally, Artemis 3 was planned as the first Moon landing mission since the Apollo program. However, earlier this year, NASA changed Artemis 3 to an Earth orbit test flight. The astronauts will land on the Moon’s surface during the Artemis 4 and Artemis 5 missions in 2028.
NASA intends to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to orbit the Earth to gain momentum for a lunar orbit. Simultaneously, a separate New Glenn or Starship rocket will be launched, carrying the lander to connect with Orion, allowing 2 of the 4 astronauts to transfer. The commercial lander will then take the astronauts down to the Moon’s surface and bring them back to the Orion spacecraft for their return to Earth.
An Khang compiled
