(Bloomberg) — NASA has announced the four astronauts who will travel to space as early as next year to test lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin — the next phase of the agency’s ambitious Artemis program to ultimately send humans back to the surface of the Moon.
The newly rostered crew includes NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, who will serve as mission specialists. They will be joined by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot of the mission, and Randy Bresnik, from NASA, flight commander. The future Artemis III mission is scheduled to fly as early as 2027.
The crew will not go near the Moon. Instead, they will fly in orbit around the Earth on a roughly two-week trip to test the landers, which will eventually be used to deliver humans to the lunar surface starting in 2028.
Functional landers are critical to the long-term success of the Artemis program, which aims to establish a base on the Moon where humans can live and work. NASA also stated that the lessons learned will help prepare the agency for future missions to Mars.
“To the crew of Artemis III, we wish you well on the journey ahead,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday during a team presentation ceremony. “You carry the flame of exploration of generations past, the trust of this agency, and the support of this nation.”
Artemis III is scheduled to take place about a year after the launch of Artemis II, which sent four astronauts around the Moon in April. That mission tested the capability and safety of the Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing Co., and the Orion crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Artemis III was originally planned to be the first mission to land American astronauts on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. But in February, Isaacman turned it into a test mission to make future lunar landings safer. The agency now aims to send humans back to the lunar surface on Artemis IV.
NASA’s tentative plan for Artemis III is to send Blue Origin’s lunar lander into Earth orbit first. The crew would then be launched into space on the SLS rocket, traveling inside the Orion capsule.
The astronauts will dock with the Blue Origin module for about two days, entering and operating the vehicle. After this part of the mission is complete, they will separate and dock with SpaceX’s Starship module for about a day.
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“We are confident that New Glenn will be ready for Artemis III,” NASA official Jeremy Parsons, who oversees the Moon to Mars program, said at Tuesday’s event, addressing the explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which is needed to propel the company’s module into space.
During the selection ceremony, executives from SpaceX and Blue Origin provided updates on the progress of their lunar landers, with SpaceX saying it intends to conduct a highly anticipated Starship in-space refueling demonstration later this year. To reach distant destinations in space, Starship needs to be refueled in orbit.
The company said it is building the Starship crew cabin for the future lunar landing mission at its Starbase facility in Texas.
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SpaceX also confirmed that Starship, not NASA’s SLS rocket, will be used to propel Orion toward the Moon in a future lunar landing mission, confirming a Bloomberg report from March.
Parsons, from NASA, said that the space agency intends to send the new Artemis spacesuits, developed by Axiom Space Inc. in partnership with the Italian brand Prada SpA, to the International Space Station in 2027 to carry out checks.
The agency also plans to conduct some tests with the suit during Artemis III on one of the landers. Axiom and Prada revealed the suit’s inner layer design on Sunday.
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