Who are the 4 astronauts taking us a step closer to our mission to Mars?
NASA on Tuesday announced the group of astronauts who will serve on the Artemis III mission as part of the space agency’s broader program to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually travel to Mars.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the following four astronauts were assigned to the test flight: Mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, commander Randy Bresnik, and pilot Luca Parmitano from the European Space Agency.
The reserve crew member is Bob Hines, who most recently served as a pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the ISS.
“While Artemis II was all about moon joy, Artemis III will be all about Earth joy,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s chief science officer. Tuesday’s announcement at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Artemis III’s primary goal is to test the Orion spacecraft’s ability to rendezvous and dock with two lunar landers. The test flight will be conducted in low Earth orbit to explore any issues closer to home.
Lunar landers are being developed and built Jeff BezosBlue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
During Tuesday’s announcement, NASA also revealed the plan for Artemis III: The Blue Origin lander will be the first to launch, followed by the Artemis III crew aboard the Orion spacecraft aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. Once in orbit, Blue Origin and Orion will dock for several days to conduct tests before separating from each other. SpaceX’s Starship will then launch, rendezvous with Orion, and dock for a day. The crew will then return to Earth aboard the Orion ship. The Artemis III mission will last approximately two weeks in total.
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis III mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2023.
(Cory Huston/NASA)
NASA needs lunar landers to be capable of transferring astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface for future Artemis IV and V missions.
New Glenn, the rocket expected to carry Blue Origin’s lunar lander into space, exploded during a ground test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 28. The explosion damaged the only launch pad available to Blue Origin. Repairs could take months or longer, challenging NASA’s accelerated timeline for launching Artemis III in late 2027.
Despite the recent setbacks, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in his opening speech that the Blue Origin lander will be included in Artemis III.
SpaceX had its problems, too. Starship’s last test flight in May was largely successful, but the flight was canceled by the Federal Aviation Administration after its booster stage malfunctioned and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Four Artemis III astronauts follow the spaceboats of the Artemis II crew: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, who broke the all-time record for the farthest distance traveled by humans from Earth while flying around the moon.
As groundbreaking and inspiring as it is in its own right, Artemis II First of all, it was also a test flight. Artemis II demonstrated the successful launch of a Space Launch System rocket to carry astronauts into space. Later, the astronauts tested the life support systems of the Orion spacecraft, which will carry the Artemis IV astronauts to the moon.
