NASA on June 9 named the four astronauts for Artemis III: commander Randy Bresnik, European Space Agency pilot Luca Parmitano, and mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, with Bob Hines as backup. Bresnik is a former TOPGUN Marine pilot, Rubio holds the U.S. record of 371 days in space, and Douglas will be making his first spaceflight.
Notably, this crew will not fly to the Moon or land on it. They are set to launch aboard a Space Launch System rocket in an Orion capsule in 2027 and remain in Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking with the lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA calls the flight a critical milestone before astronauts can return to the lunar surface, a crewed landing it is now targeting for 2028.