{"id":302686,"date":"2026-06-10T15:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302686\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:39:24","slug":"astronaut-who-graduated-from-high-school-in-miami-named-to-nasas-artemis-iii-crew-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302686\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut who graduated from high school in Miami named to NASA\u2019s Artemis III crew &#8211; WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MIAMI (WSVN) &#8211; One of the four astronauts who was <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/us-world\/nasa-unveils-artemis-iii-astronauts-to-test-technology-for-a-future-moon-landing\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/us-world\/nasa-unveils-artemis-iii-astronauts-to-test-technology-for-a-future-moon-landing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">unveiled by NASA as a member of the Artemis III<\/a> crew has strong South Florida connections.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s announcement of the Artemis III crew comes as part of the space agency\u2019s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.<\/p>\n<p>Frank Rubio, who will serve as one of the mission specialists for Artemis III, is a California native who considers Miami to be his true hometown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow is the right word. What an incredible blessing and an honor to be standing here representing all of you,\u201d said Rubio during the Tuesday ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio graduated from Miami Sunset Senior High School. He then went on to serve in the military as a parachute jumpmaster.<\/p>\n<p>Over his military career, Rubio successfully completed more than 650 skydives.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to joining NASA, he also served as an Army aviator and was deployed in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the U.S. Army colonel was selected to join the space agency.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio is no stranger to space exploration either.<\/p>\n<p>He first reached space aboard a Russian spacecraft, which was intended to be stationed at the International Space Station for about six months. Technical problems ended up making Rubio\u2019s stay in orbit aboard the station last more than 370 days.<\/p>\n<p>The unexpected lengthy trip broke the record for the longest space mission by a U.S. astronaut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, it\u2019s amazing to be in space, but more than anything, you feel very proud to do things that will help humanity,\u201d said Rubio in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>He credits his family being by his side every step of the way through his journey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo my wife and our four amazing kids: thank you for your sense of adventure and your resiliency. You guys have made all of this possible,\u201d said Rubio.<\/p>\n<p>The next step in his journey will be helping NASA take a closer step to once again reach the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you and go Artemis III,\u201d said Rubio.<\/p>\n<p>Andre Douglas, another mission specialist on the Artemis III crew, was also born in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (WSVN) &#8211; One of the four astronauts who was unveiled by NASA as a member of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-302686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}