Meet NASA’s Artemis III Astronauts

Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and Luca Parmitano combined bring thousands of hours of flight experience.

Jack Daleo

Tuesday, June 09, 2026 at 05:25 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Zach Vasile

NASA on Tuesday announced the crewmembers for its Artemis III mission (from left): NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, and NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik and Frank Rubio. [Credit: NASA/Bill Stafford]

Key Takeaways:

The Artemis II crew formally passed the "baton" to the newly named Artemis III crew, consisting of Commander Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano.
Slated for mid-2027, Artemis III will conduct a two-week integrated test in low-Earth orbit, primarily focused on rendezvousing with and evaluating commercial human landing systems (HLS) from both SpaceX and Blue Origin.
This mission is crucial for de-risking future lunar landing attempts by proving integrated operations, with NASA taking an active role to ensure the readiness of contractor-supplied hardware despite ongoing development challenges.

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On Tuesday, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch—three of the four crewmembers on NASA’s historic Artemis II mission in April—literally passed the baton to the next four astronauts participating in the space agency’s lunar exploration program.

“We’ve been carrying these batons around for way too long,” Wiseman told Randy Bresnik, who NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Tuesday named the commander of the low-Earth orbit (LEO) Artemis III mission. “You’ve got the controls.”