Meet the NASA crew who will keep Artemis III on track for its 2028 moon landing
The baton has been passed. Nearly two weeks after the catastrophic explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, NASA is moving full force into the next phase of its race to the moon, announcing the Artemis III crew and outlining mission goals. Next year, NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, and Frank Rubio, and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano, will spend two weeks in orbit testing maneuverability and compatibility between the space capsule and two landers to help ready Artemis IV, the first crewed mission to the Lunar South Pole in 2028. “Artemis III will be unlike anything we’ve ever undertaken,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X. “A multi-launch campaign bringing together the most powerful rockets in the world to test rendezvous, docking, and interoperability across multiple systems close to Earth before we return astronauts to the lunar surface.” [Photo: NASA/Jess Ruffa] NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center to low Earth orbit. There, its crew will practice rendezvous and docking maneuvers with the Blue Origin Blue Moon and SpaceX Starship lander test models vying to carry humans from lunar orbit to the surface and back during Artemis IV. Orion will dock for several days with each lander, so the crew can conduct in-space trials assessing life support, hatch operations, communications, propulsion systems, and Axiom Space’s new spacesuits, as well as help guide development of the landers. After Artemis III, both Blue Origin and SpaceX will stage several uncrewed demonstrations to the lunar surface in 2028, in advance of Artemis IV. “As the first crewed Artemis mission with commercial spacecraft, this test flight will enable us to prove we can carry out highly choreographed operations with our partners” across systems and launch pads, says Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons during a Tuesday press conference. “We want to do this in Earth’s orbit before we return to