"NASA Marches Toward Artemis III Mission in 2027, Names Crew Members" - #NASA #Artemis press release: crew of #Artemis3 (Earth-orbiting test flight of lunar lander spacecraft) announced.
Commander: Randy Bresnik🇺🇸
Pilot (2nd in command): Luca Parmitano🇮🇹🇪🇺
Mission specialists: Frank Rubio🇺🇸, Andre Douglas🇺🇸
Pilot Luca Parmitano will be first #ESA astronaut on an Artemis mission. Like in Artemis 2 crew, three of the crew are military at equal rank of Colonel and the other is an engineer.
#space
"NASA assigns crew for Artemis III, sets aggressive timeline for flying it" by @arstechnica / @sciguyspace - #NASA #Artemis3 crew announcement came with more details on plans for the test flight. #Orion will launch on #SLS then dock in low Earth orbit with separately-launched test articles of #BlueOrigin #BlueMoon & #SpaceX #Starship landers. The lander to be used on Artemis 4 lunar landing will be decided by competition of performance in this test flight. https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/nasa-assigns-crew-for-artemis-iii-sets-aggressive-timeline-for-flying-it/ #Artemis #space
NASA assigns crew for Artemis III, sets aggressive timeline for flying it

Artemis III will be an extraordinary demonstration of what is possible."

Ars Technica
@AstroHawk @arstechnica @sciguyspace If Blue Moon is a full prototype complete with life support, and the Starship vehicle won’t even be enterable by the crew, it doesn’t seem like much competition.