COURTESY: NASA

This morning, NASA announced the four crew members who will be leading their Artemis III mission.

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

They also named NASA astronaut Bob Hines will work and train alongside these four as a backup crew member.

During Artemis III, NASA’s SLS rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to low earth orbit.

After Orion systems checkouts, the spacecraft will, for the first time, demonstrate rendezvous and docking capabilities with commercial partners.

While Artemis two brought ‘moon-joy’, Artemis III will bring ‘earth-joy’ by studying the earth’s atmosphere in ways we never have before.

The mission will undertake a series of challenging tests in low earth orbit in 2027, essential for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar south pole in 2028.