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:

NASA officially announced the four-person Artemis III crew, consisting of Randy Bresnik (commander), Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, in a "baton-passing" ceremony from the Artemis II crew.
Artemis III, predicted for mid-2027, will be a critical two-week low-Earth orbit (LEO) test mission focused on integrating and rigorously testing the commercial human landing systems (HLS) from SpaceX (Starship) and Blue Origin (Blue Moon Mk2), along with developing operational procedures for future lunar missions.
The mission involves docking with both commercial HLS vehicles, with astronauts planned to enter and test life support systems within Blue Origin's lander. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin face significant remaining development and testing milestones to meet the target launch timeline, including in-space propellant transfer for Starship and recovery from a recent anomaly for Blue Origin.

See a mistake? Contact us.

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.”