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 formally introduced the four-person Artemis III crew, who received a symbolic "baton pass" from the Artemis II astronauts for their upcoming mission.
Artemis III, unlike previous missions, will remain in low-Earth orbit for two weeks, focusing on critical in-space testing of commercial Human Landing System (HLS) vehicles from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Scheduled for mid-2027, the mission aims to perform rendezvous, docking, and in-lander life support system evaluations to reduce risks for future crewed lunar landing efforts, despite ongoing development challenges for both HLS providers.

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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.”