By Micah Maidenberg
NASA has chosen a new slate of astronauts for its next Artemis mission, which aims to test the craft that will eventually return the U.S. to the lunar surface.
Artemis III will be led by mission commander Randy Bresnik, a retired Marine Corps colonel who became a NASA astronaut in 2004, officials said Tuesday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
He will be joined by NASA's Andre Douglas, who served in the Coast Guard as a naval architect, and Frank Rubio, an experienced astronaut who once spent more than a year aboard the International Space Station. Luca Parmitano, representing the European Space Agency, will round out the group.
Artemis III won't send the crew around the moon, as Artemis II flight did. Instead, it aims to test hardware and vehicles that NASA intends to use for an eventual moon landing.
The agency intends to launch the Artemis III mission next year despite a rocket explosion that wrecked Blue Origin's launchpad in Florida. The space company, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, plays a key role in Artemis, as NASA calls its flagship exploration effort.
Naming the crew allows the astronauts to focus their training on specific elements of the flight, planned to unfold over roughly two weeks in low-Earth-orbit.
A key goal during Artemis III is docking the Orion astronaut spacecraft with lunar lander vehicles that SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing.
Under NASA's plan, the Blue Origin lander will connect with the agency's Orion vehicle, allowing crew members to enter. Orion would disconnect from Blue Origin's vehicle, and then dock with a SpaceX Starship lander before flying back to Earth.
Artemis III has a similar profile to the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969, when NASA conducted a series of tests in Earth orbit, helping it prepare for the first-ever astronaut moon landing later that year.
Blue Origin is relying on New Glenn to launch its lander for the Artemis III mission. The company won't be launching anything over the next few months as it works to rebuild the wrecked launchpad, but executives have said the rocket will launch again before the end of the year.
"Blue Origin is very motivated to be part of the journey of returning humans to the moon. We've redoubled our efforts and are moving forward," John Couluris, a senior vice president at the company, said Tuesday.
SpaceX last month launched an upgraded version of its Starship rocket, key to its own lunar lander plans.
Starship achieved several of SpaceX's goals for that flight. The booster's engines, however, didn't perform correctly and its spacecraft lost an engine during the operation. The vehicle has additional milestones to clear ahead of the Artemis III mission.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 09, 2026 13:17 ET (17:17 GMT)
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