{"id":726016,"date":"2026-06-09T21:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/726016\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:29:12","slug":"nasa-selects-one-italian-three-u-s-astronauts-for-artemis-mission-with-spacex-blue-origin-mooncraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/726016\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA selects one Italian, three U.S. astronauts for Artemis mission with SpaceX, Blue Origin mooncraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Astronauts Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano of Italy and the European Space Agency, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas greet audience members during the Artemis III crew reveal at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday.Brandon Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

NASA named three U.S. astronauts and an Italian astronaut on Tuesday to serve as the crew for its next Artemis mission, a spacecraft docking demonstration in Earth\u2019s orbit next year that will test landers from Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin for the first time in space.<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman at a ceremony in Houston named U.S. astronauts Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio and Randy Bresnik and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency as the crew for Artemis III. It is due to launch late next year, with no specific date yet announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtemis III is an incredibly exciting, complicated and highly co-ordinated multi-launch campaign,\u201d Jeremy Parsons, NASA\u2019s Artemis program manager, said at the Houston event. \u201cIt\u2019s going to happen in a short period of time with three of the world\u2019s most powerful rockets.\u201d The mission will be a delicate dance in low-Earth orbit of multiple spacecraft involved in NASA\u2019s complex Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to return people to the moon for a long-term presence. The program faces competitive pressure from China, which is targeting its own 2030 crewed moon landing.<\/p>\n

NASA lays out plans for moon base less than two months after Artemis II\u2019s lunar voyage<\/a><\/p>\n

Though the two-week Artemis III mission will not approach the moon, it is seen as a key debut test of the two primary moon landers NASA will use on subsequent Artemis missions to put astronauts on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Starship and Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon will take turns docking with NASA\u2019s Orion, the astronaut capsule that launches off Earth atop NASA\u2019s Space Launch System. The three spacecraft will test docking mechanisms and hover around each other in low-Earth orbit before returning to Earth. <\/p>\n

Three U.S. astronauts and one Canadian flew around the moon and back in April in NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission, following Artemis I in 2022, a similar flight but without a crew. The second crewed voyage in NASA\u2019s Artemis program, Artemis III is the final mission planned before the space agency attempts to land astronauts on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

First to launch to orbit in the Artemis III mission sequence will be Blue Moon, followed by the launch of Orion carrying the astronauts, Parsons said. The two spacecraft will dock for about two days while the astronauts conduct tests and technology demos in Blue Moon.<\/p>\n

Blue Moon will undock from Orion, making way for Starship, which will then attempt to dock for a day before returning to Earth.<\/p>\n

NASA revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission – NASA\u2019s Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency\u2019s Luca Parmitano – the next step in the space agency\u2019s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

SpaceX and Blue Origin have faced years of delay in the development of their landers. Last year, the companies pitched NASA on sped-up development plans that prompted a reshuffling of the agency\u2019s Artemis program, giving rise to the Artemis III docking mission. <\/p>\n

The 2027 mission would require both SpaceX\u2019s Starship and a prototype version of Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon to be ready for launch at nearly the same time. SpaceX last month test-launched a new version of its Starship rocket with upgrades for moon missions. <\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad in Florida last month as it was preparing to launch a batch of Amazon satellites. The explosion destroyed much of the company\u2019s only launch pad and grounded for at least several months the rocket that Blue Origin aims to use to launch its Blue Moon lander, which is being ground-tested in Houston and Florida.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s moon chief John Couluris said at the event on Tuesday that the company has made \u201cexcellent\u201d progress on its investigation into the explosion\u2019s cause. The company\u2019s CEO expects New Glenn to return to the pad by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that New Glenn will be ready for Artemis III,\u201d NASA\u2019s Parsons said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Failure is an option but quitting is not, and other advice from Artemis II crew<\/a><\/p>\n

The inclusion of Parmitano, 49, in the Artemis mission marks a win for Italy at a politically sensitive time for NASA\u2019s closest international partners.<\/p>\n

Isaacman in his reshuffling of the Artemis program this year cancelled plans for a moon-orbiting space station called Gateway, heeding the accelerated lander development plans from SpaceX and Blue Origin and putting greater focus on building a lunar surface base instead.<\/p>\n

The decision blindsided NASA allies that had spent years building key Gateway parts, including the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. NASA soon after signed an agreement with Italy for help building the moonbase.<\/p>\n

Parmitano joined the ESA astronaut corps in 2009 and has flown to space twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is news that does not surprise us, but fills us with satisfaction, because it represents the development of a path prepared over time that will see Italian astronauts involved in future Artemis missions for a sustained return to the moon,\u201d Italian Space Agency President Teodoro Valente said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that four U.S. astronauts flew around the moon on the Artemis II mission. The crew consisted of three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Astronauts Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano of Italy and the European Space Agency, Frank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,306,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-726016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-space","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}