NASA assigns its Artemis III crew to test critical lunar mission

NASA on Tuesday foot the Four astronauts will be sent into space on Artemis III The mission, which will demonstrate the flight and docking capabilities of an as-yet-untested lunar lander.

This announcement comes two months after Artemis II mission It sent astronauts to orbit the moon for the first time since the lunar landing missions in the early 1970s.

The Artemis III crew, scheduled to launch in 2027, will be composed of NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik (commander), Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio (mission specialists) and Luca Parmitano of the Italian Space Agency (pilot).

Three of them are experienced astronauts. Bresnik has made two trips into space, starting with a space shuttle mission in 2009. Parmitano has also traveled to space twice, for a total of 367 days. Rubio, who managed a coolant leak during a mission, spent 371 consecutive days in space, setting a record for NASA astronauts. Douglas will make his first space flight.

The newly announced members of the program were joined on stage Tuesday by three of the four Artemis II astronauts: Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover And Christina Koch. This crew spent 10 days in space, making one pass around the far side of the Moon, traveling Farther from the ground More than any other human being in history, he took stunning photos before landing safely in the Pacific Ocean.

The Artemis III mission will not reach the Moon. Instead, it will remain in low Earth orbit to test how NASA’s Orion spacecraft docks with privately built lunar landers, one of which is being provided by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight company. But Blue Origin suffered a disastrous setback late last month when one of its New Glenn rockets launched It exploded in a massive explosionWhich led to the damage of the company’s only launch pad.

The explosion represented a “huge anomaly” for the company, John Coulouris, Blue Origin’s senior lunar vice president, said during Tuesday’s livestream.

NASA and Blue Origin officials have been tight-lipped about the timing of the repairs, but remain committed to the mission’s current timeline. Tuesday’s announcement confirmed the timeline Artemis programWhich aims to put humans on the moon again about two years from now.

“We will return to the moon before the end of 2028,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the live broadcast.

The space agency also plans to use a lander from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company for Artemis missions. Modified version of the company Spacecraft rocketwhich has not yet traveled to space, will dock with NASA’s Orion spacecraft before being used to land on the moon’s surface.

Landing on the moon would be a step in a larger initiative to use the moon as a launching point for missions to Mars. NASA plans to begin construction of a lunar base during the Artemis V mission.

Representatives for NASA, Blue Origin and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.