NASA Announces Crew For Next Phase Of Its Moon Mission

On Tuesday, NASA announced the four men set to embark on a low-Earth orbit test flight in the next step toward America’s goal to once again set foot on the moon. 

NASA selected Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, Luca Parmitano, and Randy Bresnik for Artemis III. The four men will train for a year and a half, a shorter time than the Artemis II crew’s training, which was three years. Bresnik was designated as the commander, and Douglass and Rubio are the mission specialists. Parmitano — an Italian from the European Space Agency — is the pilot.

As the crowd applauded the men, Douglas shouted “Mom, thank you so much for believing in me.” 

For the Artemis III mission, the crew will be traveling in an Orion capsule for about two weeks, which is roughly the size of two minivans. The four crew members will undergo training to establish relational-bonds and teamwork. According to NASA, the mission’s goal is to “carry out a series of objectives designed to demonstrate critical systems needed for a future lunar landing.”

The Space Launch System rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, hopes to launch the crew members from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center by late 2027. The Orion spacecraft is a major step for NASA towards exploration on the Moon and, eventually, Mars.

Parmitano represents the European agency, beginning his career as “a test pilot and then colonel with the Italian Air Force.” In 2007, he was selected by the Italian Air Force to be a test pilot, training as an “Experimental Test Pilot at EPNER, the French test pilot school in Istres.” Promoted to colonel in the Italian Air Force, he logged over 2,000 hours of flight time. He also qualified for over 20 types of military airplanes and helicopters, flying over 40 types of aircraft. He has previously spent 366 days in space across two missions to the International Space Station and Volare and Beyond.  

Bresnik, the oldest member of the crew, started working with NASA in 2004, and is the only crew member who flew on a space shuttle before the vehicles retired. Bresnik has a military career, commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1989. He also attended U.S. Naval Test Pilot’s School, becoming an F/A-18 Test Pilot and was deployed to Kuwait, flying combat missions. Along with being a veteran of the Space Shuttle mission STS-129, Bresnik served as “Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 53 and flight engineer for Expedition 52” with over 32 hours of Spacewalk experience. Bresnik also has over 3,600 hours in spacecraft. 

Douglas has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan, along with a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and a doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University. He also was a “naval architect, salvage engineer, damage control assistant, and officer of the deck” while serving the U.S. Coast Guard.

When Douglas was selected in 2021 to join NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Class, he was a “senior professional staff member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL) working on maritime robotics, planetary defense, and space exploration missions.”

Rubio graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1998, and received a Doctorate of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2010. He also served in the U.S. Army as an aviator and a physician for over 28 years. An Army Aviator, Rubio flew more than 1,100 hours, which includes over 600 hours of “combat and imminent danger time” as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He is board-certified as a “family physician and flight surgeon.” When Rubio was selected by NASA in 2017, he was serving in the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group.

Rubio spent 371 days in space, the longest continuous stay in space by a NASA astronaut, due to traveling to the International Space Station where a coolant leak occurred. Rubio had travelled in a Russian Soyuz capsule, docked to the space station, and, instead of staying there six months, had to wait for a replacement Soyuz to come for over a year.