For the first time in over half a century, Americans will walk on the moon again, and NASA just revealed who’s going to get them there.
The space agency announced Tuesday that a crew of four astronauts, including three Americans, will lead the Artemis III mission scheduled for 2027. It marks humanity’s first return to the lunar surface since 1972, when the Apollo program concluded.
Commander Randy “Komrade” Bresnik, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer from Kentucky and California, will lead the mission. Joining him are Mission Specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, both NASA astronauts. European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano of Italy will serve as pilot. NASA also named astronaut Bob Hines as a backup crew member.
The announcement came during a live event at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where the crew addressed the nation.
“Spaceflight is hard, and that’s why the most important Artemis mission will be the next Artemis mission,” Bresnik said. “We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space, being that unifying link between the phenomenal Artemis II mission we just had two months ago, and the Artemis IV mission that will follow ours.”
NASA described the upcoming flight as “one of the most complex human spaceflight missions in recent history.” The mission will involve the agency’s Space Launch System rocket launching the Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to low Earth orbit. Once there, the spacecraft will test rendezvous and docking operations with moon landing equipment from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for the first time.
“This highly choreographed mission includes a dramatic multi-launch campaign of the world’s most powerful rockets, testing integrated hardware between Orion and the landers, including system interfaces, software, propulsion, and communications,” NASA stated.
The crew brings decades of combined military and aerospace experience to the mission.
Bresnik became an astronaut in 2004 after serving as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps since 1989. He previously commanded the International Space Station during Expedition 53 and served as flight engineer for Expedition 52. Rubio, hailing from California and Florida, was selected to join NASA’s 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. At the time of his selection, he was serving as a battalion surgeon for the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group in the U.S. Army. Douglas, from Florida and Virginia, was selected by NASA to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class. He was previously announced as a backup crew member for the Artemis II test flight around the moon earlier this year. Parmitano, from Paterno and Catania, Italy, completed his undergraduate pilot training in 2001 before being selected by the Italian Air Force to become a test pilot in 2007. He joined ESA as an astronaut in 2009.
The Artemis program represents America’s renewed commitment to space exploration and maintaining leadership beyond Earth’s atmosphere. With private American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin providing critical hardware, the mission showcases the partnership between government and the private sector that has defined the new era of American spaceflight.
The 2027 mission will build on the success of Artemis II, which the crew referenced as having occurred just two months prior to Tuesday’s announcement.
