NASA Names the Next Artemis Crew

NASA on Tuesday revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission, the next step in the space agency's plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon. NASA named Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano to the mission, per the AP. They won't fly to the moon or land on the surface. Instead, they'll orbit Earth while practicing docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers. The announcement comes two months after Artemis II's record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the distance record of Apollo 13.

"To the Artemis III crew, we wish you Godspeed on the journey ahead," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are racing to deliver the lunar landers, with the two-week mission scheduled to launch in 2027. The space agency's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon's surface for the first time since the 1970s. A revamp of the program announced by Isaacman aims to fast-track it similarly to the Apollo era, with a landing scheduled for 2028.