NASA Reveals the Name of the Artemis III Crew Set To Travel to the Moon

NASA made shockwaves around the world when the U.S. space agency announced its plans to establish a permanent settlement on the moon.

The plan was revealed to operate in multiple phases, with the Artemis crew playing an essential role to the entire mission. After Artemis II experienced so much success with its lunar flyby in April 2026, people found themselves eagerly awaiting the next announcement from NASA, which would include revealing the names of the Artemis III crew.

On June 9, 2026, NASA finally satisfied everyone's curiosity, sharing which four astronauts would be the ones to make the next trip into space, helping the space agency to fulfil the goal of putting more crews on the moon.

Keep reading to learn more about the team that has been chosen, including what their official mission will be once they get to work, and how long it will take for them to get Artemis III ready to head towards the Earth's biggest satellite.

NASA revealed the names of the new crew members. A press release about the announcement contains the crew's names as well as their titles, which includes:

• Randy Bresnik, commander and NASA astronaut
• Luca Parmitano, pilot, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut
• Andre Douglas, mission specialist and NASA astronaut
• Frank Rubio, mission specialist and NASA astronaut

Bob Hines was named as the backup crew member, who will step in if he is needed once the mission gets ready to take flight.

These astronauts come with robust resumes, like that of Bresnik and Parmitano, who have already been on two space missions.

This trip marks the first time that an ESA astronaut will join the Americans aboard an Artemis mission, highlighting just how important the success of this mission is to the U.S. and our partners around the world.

Additionally, this will allow NASA to work directly with ESA's European Service Module, which will provide the capabilities that are needed to power Orion.

Artemis III will embark on a two-week flight that is designed to test some of the deep-space capabilities that will be needed to continue progressing towards the permanent settlement on the moon. According to CNN, the crew is hoping to launch by the end of 2027, using the mission as a precursor to NASA's next moon landing.

One of the main objectives of this trip will be to test the docking capabilities between the Orion spacecraft and a lunar lander in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

LEO is where the International Space Station (ISS) orbits, giving you an idea of how far these astronauts will have to travel to complete their mission.

NASA says that this should help ensure the safety of the crew that will go up after Artemis III. That lucky group is expected to be the first crew to land on the moon in 50 years, a mission that the space agency is hopeful will be ready to take flight in 2028.