The Artemis 3 crew 2027 has been officially announced. NASA named four astronauts on June 9, 2026, for the Artemis III mission: Randy Bresnik as commander, Luca Parmitano as pilot, Frank Rubio as mission specialist, and Andre Douglas as mission specialist, with Bob Hines designated as backup. The announcement came alongside confirmation that Artemis III, now restructured from a lunar landing into a critical low Earth orbit test flight, will launch in 2027 to demonstrate rendezvous and docking with test versions of both commercial human landing systems from Blue Origin and SpaceX. The first crewed Moon landing is now planned for Artemis IV in 2028.
Artemis 3 Crew 2027: The Four Astronauts Named
Crew assignments are as follows:
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, commander. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot. NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, mission specialist. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, mission specialist. Bob Hines was named as backup crew member.
The crew will begin training immediately on Orion spacecraft systems, as well as assist in the development and operations of the test versions of Blue Origin and SpaceX landers.
This announcement represents a full year after Artemis II’s successful circumlunar flight in April 2026, and the pace of the program accelerating under NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Crucially, the assignment of Luca Parmitano is historic: this is the first time an ESA astronaut has been assigned an Artemis mission.
What Is Artemis III? The Restructured Mission Explained
The mission as currently structured is fundamentally different from its original conception. In February 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman restructured Artemis III from a planned lunar landing into a low Earth orbit rendezvous and docking rehearsal. The first crewed Moon landing under the Artemis program is now assigned to Artemis IV, targeted for early 2028.
The mission will undertake a series of challenging tests in Earth orbit in 2027, essential for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028.
During Artemis III, NASA’s SLS rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew from Kennedy Space Center to low Earth orbit. After Orion systems checkouts, the spacecraft will, for the first time, demonstrate rendezvous and docking capabilities with test versions from one, or both, American commercial human landing systems in development by Blue Origin and SpaceX.
The crew is expected to remain in space for about two weeks, with the exact mission length determined in real-time based on launch, rendezvous, and docked operations. The highly choreographed mission includes a dramatic multi-launch campaign of the world’s most powerful rockets, testing integrated hardware between Orion and the landers, including system interfaces, software, propulsion, and communications.
Randy Bresnik: Commander With Deep Exploration Experience
This will be the third mission to space for Bresnik, having launched aboard space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station in 2009. He later flew on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the space station, serving as a flight engineer for Expedition 52 and commander of Expedition 53.
A California native, he graduated from The Citadel with a degree in mathematics and was selected by NASA in the 2004 astronaut candidate class. A retired U.S. Marine colonel, he has logged more than 7,000 hours in 95 types of aircraft and is a fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
Since 2018, Bresnik has served as assistant to the chief of the Astronaut Office for exploration, overseeing the development and testing of the spacecraft and systems that will operate during Artemis missions. That institutional role makes him a particularly well-suited commander for a mission whose primary purpose is testing complex spacecraft interfaces under real orbital conditions.
Luca Parmitano: The First ESA Astronaut on an Artemis Mission
Parmitano’s assignment as pilot is historic. This also is the first time an ESA astronaut has been assigned an Artemis mission.
Artemis III will be the third spaceflight for Parmitano. Selected by ESA as an astronaut in 2009, he first served as a flight engineer on the Italian Space Agency’s first long-duration mission to the space station in 2013. He returned in 2019 aboard Soyuz MS-13 for his second mission, during which he served as commander of Expedition 61, becoming the third European and the first Italian to command the station.
Parmitano earned a bachelor’s degree in political sciences from the University of Naples Federico II and a master’s degree in experimental flight test engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse. A graduate of the Italian Air Force Academy, he became a test pilot in 2007 and has logged more than 2,000 flight hours across 40 types of aircraft.
“Luca’s assignment as pilot reflects the depth of European expertise in human spaceflight and draws on his extensive operational experience in high-pressure situations,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. “At the same time, ESA’s European Service Module will once again provide the critical capabilities that power Orion, demonstrating Europe’s enduring role at the very heart of the Artemis program.”
Frank Rubio: The American Who Spent 371 Days in Space
Rubio is making his second trip to space. He launched aboard Soyuz MS-22 to the ISS on September 21, 2022, and returned on September 27, 2023, breaking the record for the longest single-duration spaceflight by an American astronaut with 371 days in orbit.
That record-setting spaceflight is directly relevant to Artemis III’s mission profile. A pilot and physician who spent over a year managing the physical and psychological demands of long-duration spaceflight, Rubio brings an unusual combination of operational expertise and personal experience with extended microgravity exposure.
Rubio was selected by NASA in the 2017 astronaut candidate class. A Florida native, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1998, earned a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2010, and has served for more than 28 years in the U.S. Army as an aviator, physician, and astronaut.
Andre Douglas: The Rookie Making His First Spaceflight
The mission is Douglas’ first spaceflight. Selected by NASA in the 2021 astronaut candidate class, he previously served as a backup and closeout crew member for the Artemis II mission.
A Virginia native, Douglas earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and four postgraduate degrees from various institutions, including a doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University. During his time in the Coast Guard, he conducted search and rescue, maritime salvage, and drug interdiction operations. His work at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory involved designing and testing multidomain autonomous vehicles, space exploration systems, and undersea warfare platforms.
The choice of a first-time flier as mission specialist on a test mission of this complexity is notable. It reflects NASA’s confidence in Douglas’s engineering background, which is directly applicable to the systems integration and interface testing that defines Artemis III’s primary objectives.
Blue Origin, SpaceX, and the Two-Lander Challenge
Whether one or both landers are ready for crewed docking when Artemis III launches depends entirely on the development progress SpaceX and Blue Origin make between now and 2027. Both commercial partners confirmed to Isaacman that they are targeting readiness for a late-2027 docking rendezvous.
Blue Origin is developing a crewed lunar version of its Blue Moon lander, while SpaceX is developing a crewed lunar lander version of Starship, with both companies building test articles for Artemis III. NASA is supporting both lander providers throughout design, development, testing, and evaluation.
The mission architecture has Blue Origin’s lander pathfinder launching first and waiting in orbit. NASA will then launch the crew aboard Orion to rendezvous and spend about two days docked with Blue Origin’s test article before detaching and awaiting Starship. After roughly one day docked with SpaceX’s Starship pathfinder, Orion will undock and return to Earth via Pacific Ocean splashdown.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has previously raised concerns about whether SpaceX’s Starship can be ready in time, and Orion’s internal production readiness date is currently January 2028, with Lockheed Martin working to accelerate that schedule.
From Artemis III to Artemis IV: The Path to the Moon
The Artemis III mission builds on the successful Artemis II flight completed in April and will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts to Mars.
Artemis IV, the actual lunar landing mission, is targeted for early 2028. The South Pole of the Moon has been the target location since the program’s inception, driven by the scientific interest in permanently shadowed craters that may contain water ice.
NASA Administrator Isaacman told Congress: “We just sent Artemis 2 around the moon. We’re going to launch Artemis 3 in 2027. We’ll protect for two landings in 2028.” The path from Artemis III’s orbital test to Artemis IV’s landing depends entirely on whether the 2027 docking tests confirm that both commercial landers can safely interface with Orion, support crew entry, and operate their life support systems in microgravity conditions before the final lunar descent profile is committed.
Latest Updates
NASA’s official announcement was released on June 9, 2026. NASA.gov confirmed the four prime crew members (Bresnik, Parmitano, Rubio, Douglas), backup crew member Bob Hines, the two-week orbital mission duration, the dual Blue Origin and SpaceX lander test architecture, and confirmed this is the first ESA astronaut assignment on an Artemis mission. Scientific American confirmed that the mission could launch as early as the second half of 2027 though many experts expect schedule pressure, and that NASA’s formal first crewed lunar landing is now planned for Artemis IV in 2028. The New York Times’ analysis examined whether NASA can realistically achieve the 2028 Moon landing timeline given hardware readiness questions.
Full sources: NASA.gov | Fox News | New York Times
Broader Implications
The naming of the Artemis III crew is a genuine milestone, but it exists within a program that has repeatedly demonstrated the gap between ambition and execution. The original Artemis III was going to land Americans on the Moon in 2024. Then 2025. Then 2026. Then 2027. Now it is a test flight in low Earth orbit, with the actual landing pushed to Artemis IV in 2028.
None of those delays are entirely NASA’s fault. The SLS rocket, Orion capsule, SpaceX’s Starship HLS, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon are all extraordinarily complex hardware. The interactions between those systems, especially the orbital rendezvous and docking that Artemis III exists to test, represent challenges that cannot be fully simulated on the ground.
For the four astronauts named Tuesday, the mission they will fly in 2027 is not the lunar landing that many of them likely hoped for when they joined the astronaut corps. It is something arguably harder in some ways: a multi-launch, multi-vehicle orbital choreography that has to work perfectly so that their successors on Artemis IV can walk on the Moon. Getting that right matters for every crewed mission that follows.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is the Artemis 3 crew for the 2027 mission? NASA named four crew members for Artemis III on June 9, 2026: Randy Bresnik (commander), Luca Parmitano (pilot), Frank Rubio (mission specialist), and Andre Douglas (mission specialist). Bob Hines was named as backup crew member. Luca Parmitano is the first ESA astronaut assigned to an Artemis mission.
2. Will Artemis 3 land on the Moon? No. In February 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman restructured Artemis III from a planned lunar landing into a low Earth orbit rendezvous and docking rehearsal. The mission will test interfaces between Orion and test versions of both the Blue Origin Blue Moon and SpaceX Starship human landing systems. The first crewed Moon landing is planned for Artemis IV in 2028.
3. What will the Artemis 3 crew do in space? The crew will launch to low Earth orbit on the SLS rocket inside the Orion capsule. They will then rendezvous and dock with test articles from both Blue Origin’s Blue Moon and SpaceX’s Starship human landing systems, spending approximately two days with Blue Origin’s lander and one day with SpaceX’s, testing system interfaces, software, propulsion, communications, and potentially entering the landers. The total mission is expected to last approximately two weeks.
4. Who is Frank Rubio and why is he on Artemis 3? Frank Rubio is a NASA astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American at 371 days on the International Space Station in 2022-2023. A Florida native, U.S. Army aviator, and physician, he was selected by NASA in 2017. His extensive experience with long-duration microgravity operations makes him a valuable mission specialist for Artemis III’s systems testing objectives.
5. When is the first crewed Moon landing planned for NASA? The first crewed Moon landing is planned for Artemis IV, targeted for early 2028. NASA Administrator Isaacman has stated he is protecting for two crewed lunar landing attempts in 2028 as part of Artemis IV and Artemis V. The timing depends on successful completion of Artemis III’s orbital lander tests in 2027 and hardware readiness from both Blue Origin and SpaceX.
