Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and Luca Parmitano will not set foot on the moon—but they're about to chart the course for everyone who will. NASA announced Tuesday that these four astronauts will command the Artemis III mission, a critical orbital test that represents humanity's next leap toward returning to the lunar surface for the first time since the 1970s.
The crew won't travel to the moon or land on its surface. Instead, over a two-week mission targeted for 2027, they'll remain in Earth orbit while practicing the most technically demanding maneuver of the entire program: docking the Orion capsule with two separate lunar landers in sequence. It's a rehearsal of the intricate choreography that will eventually allow astronauts to reach the moon's surface and establish a sustained human presence there.
Bresnik, commanding the mission, already knows what it takes to reach space—he's a veteran of previous spaceflights. Joining him are fellow NASA astronauts Rubio and Douglas, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. "We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space," Bresnik said in a statement. Douglas, the mission specialist, reflected the emotional weight of the moment: "My brain—it is going a mile a minute right now. But my heart, it is so warm. It is so full."
The timing of the announcement matters. It arrived just two months after Artemis II's record-breaking journey around the moon, which surpassed the distance record previously set by Apollo 13. That successful crewed flight validated NASA's new spacecraft and set the stage for more ambitious missions ahead. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who announced a fast-tracked revamp of the Artemis program in the spirit of the Apollo era, is aiming for a lunar landing in 2028—immediately following the Artemis III orbital test.
Behind the scenes, SpaceX and Blue Origin are in a race to deliver the lunar landers that will be essential to the 2027 test. Blue Origin recently suffered a significant setback when its massive rocket exploded during an engine-firing test on a Florida launch pad, shaking nearby homes and illuminating the sky with an orange fireball. Nevertheless, NASA's Jeremy Parsons expressed confidence that the setback is simply a learning opportunity and that Blue Origin's vehicle will be ready in time.
The Artemis program itself is part of a far larger vision. In May, NASA awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four companies, including Blue Origin, to build landers, rovers, and drones for a future moon base. That base will serve as more than a destination—it will be a proving ground and launchpad for humanity's eventual journey to Mars. Each step matters: mastering orbital docking in 2027, landing on the moon in 2028, and building a sustainable presence that could one day carry humans to the red planet. The Artemis III crew's two-week orbital test may not capture the imagination quite like a moonwalk, but it represents the essential infrastructure that makes everything else possible.