New Delhi: NASA has announced the four prime crew members and detailed the flight profile for its upcoming Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch into
low Earth orbit in 2027. The high-stakes flight test serves as the final technical demonstration before the Artemis IV mission, which aims to land the first crewed mission at the lunar South Pole in 2028. The primary crew consists of Commander Randy Bresnik, pilot Luca Parmitano, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio. Bresnik, Douglas and Rubio are NASA astronauts while Parmitano is an European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. The backup crew member is NASA astronaut Bob Hines.
This is the first time than an ESA astronaut has been assigned to an Artemis mission. ESA is a close collaborator with NASA on the Artemis programme, and provides the service module for powering the Orion spaceship. The crew will spend about two weeks in Earth orbit during the Artemis III mission, which will be launched on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. In orbit, Orion will execute a series of complex rendezvous and docking procedures with test versions of the commercial human landing systems being currently developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.
Artemis III mission profile
The mission relies on a highly coordinated campaign that will see the most powerful heavy-lift rockets in the world. Blue Origin’s lander pathfinder will launch first, and loiter in orbit for seveal weeks. After launching and docking with the Blue Origin vehicle for two days of system and interface testing, Orion will detach and await the launch of the SpaceX Starship pathfinder mission to launch. Orion will then dock with Starship for a 24-hour checkout operation. The Artemis III mission will conclude with the Orion spaceship splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Hardware integration for the flight is underway.
