NASA announces crew members for Artemis III mission to test new moon landers: Here's what we know

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Tuesday (local time) named the four astronauts it plans to send on the Artemis III mission, marking the next step in its return-to-the-Moon programme.

Meet the crew of the Artemis III mission

The four astronauts selected for the mission are Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas. The mission, scheduled for next year, will place the crew in Earth's orbit to test at least one of the commercially developed lunar landers expected to carry NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon in 2028, NBC News reported on Tuesday (local time).

Bresnik will lead the mission as commander, while Parmitano, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, will serve as pilot. Rubio and Douglas have been named mission specialists, and NASA astronaut Bob Hines will prepare as the backup crew member.

SpaceX, Blue Origin compete to build landers

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are racing to build the landers that the Artemis III mission aims to test. In an update shared on Tuesday, both companies said they expect their landers to be ready by then.

According to NASA, Blue Origin is developing a crewed lunar version of the company’s Blue Moon lander, while SpaceX is developing a crewed lunar lander version of the company’s Starship. Both companies are building test articles for Artemis III. NASA is supporting both lander providers throughout the design, development, testing, and evaluation process, including by sharing agency expertise and capabilities gained from previous missions.

Artemis III mission to last two weeks: NASA

Jeremy Parsons, NASA’s Artemis Program Manager, said, "This test flight will enable us to prove we can carry out highly choreographed operations with our partners across hardware interfaces, software propulsion systems, and life support elements, with crew in the high-stakes space environment."

The Artemis III mission is expected to last roughly two weeks, Parsons said, making it approximately four days longer than the Artemis II mission around the Moon, which took place earlier in April. The mission is expected to serve as the final test flight in NASA's Artemis programme. If the mission achieves its objectives, the agency plans to follow it with Artemis IV, which is intended to return astronauts to the lunar surface.

Here's what we know about the Artemis III mission

Parsons also stated that every aspect of this mission will provide NASA with insight into how to refine its plans for Artemis IV. He added, "This mission is deliberately designed to take calculated risks so that future crews will be safer and ultimately successful when we put boots on the lunar surface."

The programme also aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. The space agency announced plans this year to spend roughly $20 billion to build a base on the lunar surface.

Initially, the space agency had planned for the Artemis III mission to land astronauts on the Moon, but NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman overhauled the programme this year to add missions and increase the pace of launches ahead of a Moon landing attempt.

For the Artemis III mission, NASA intends to use the same launch configuration planned for Artemis II. The newly announced crew will travel aboard the Orion spacecraft, which will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.