NASA unveils 4-person crew for Artemis III mission

NASA unveiled the four-person crew for its Artemis III mission on Tuesday, consisting of three American astronauts and one Italian astronaut, reported Xinhua.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, who will serve as commander, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, who will serve as mission specialists, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who will serve as pilot.

Another NASA astronaut, Bob Hines, was named as a backup crew member and will train alongside the prime crew.

Artemis III is scheduled to undertake a series of challenging tests in Earth orbit in 2027, essential for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028.

During the mission, NASA's Space Launch System rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the U.S. state of Florida into low Earth orbit.

Following Orion systems checkouts, the spacecraft will, for the first time, demonstrate rendezvous and docking capabilities with test versions from one or both U.S. commercial human landing systems being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX, according to NASA.