NASA has revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission, the next step in the US space agency’s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.
The announcement comes two months after Artemis II’s record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the distance record of Apollo 13.
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will pilot the next voyage, the first European to join one of the program’s missions.
He will be joined by three US astronauts: Commander Randy Bresnik and mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas.
From left, Andre Douglas, Luca Parmitano, Randy Bresnik and Frank Rubio. (AP: Bill Stafford/NASA)
The crew will not fly to the Moon or land on the surface, but instead orbit Earth while practising docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers.
“To the Artemis III crew, we wish you Godspeed on the journey ahead,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are racing to deliver the lunar landers. The two-week demo is planned for 2027.
Blue Origin suffered a recent setback when its massive rocket exploded during an engine-firing test on the launch pad in Florida, shaking nearby homes and illuminating the sky with an orange fireball.
NASA’s Jeremy Parsons said the explosion was a learning opportunity and that the space agency was confident Blue Origin’s rocket would be ready in time.
The Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since the 1970s.
Artemis III is the final mission planned before the space agency attempts to land astronauts on the lunar surface. (Supplied: NASA)
A recent revamp of the program announced by Mr Isaacman aims to fast-track it similarly to the Apollo era, adding the upcoming spaceflight around Earth before eyeing a lunar landing in 2028.
“We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space,” said Commander Bresnik.
Dr Douglas, mission specialist, said at the announcement event in Houston that his brain was “going a mile a minute”.
“But my heart, it is so warm. It is so full,”
he said.
In May, NASA awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four companies, including Blue Origin, to build landers, rovers and drones for a future moon base.
Mr Isaacman said the goal of the moon base was to lay the foundation for a Mars expedition.
AP/Reuters
