Who are the Artemis III crew?
On June 9, 2026, NASA announced the crew of Artemis III: commander Randy Bresnik (NASA), pilot Luca Parmitano (ESA), mission specialist Frank Rubio (NASA), and mission specialist Andre Douglas (NASA).
Randy Bresnik is a native of Santa Monica, California. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from The Citadel Military College of South Carolina in 1989, followed by a master’s in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002. He served as a U.S. Air Force pilot, became a test pilot in 1999, and was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2004. Bresnik served as Mission Specialist for the Space Shuttle mission STS-129 in 2008, then flew to the International Space Station in 2017 as flight engineer for Expedition 52 and as ISS commander for Expedition 53. Bresnik is one of two astronauts in history to have a child born while they were in space.
Luca Parmitano is a native of Catania, Italy. Parmitano earned a master’s in political sciences at the University of Naples Federico II in 1999, then joined a joint U.S.-Europe NATO pilot training program, and later earned a second master’s degree in experimental flight test engineering at the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace. The European Space Agency (ESA) selected Parmitano as an astronaut in 2009. He served as a flight engineer on ISS Expeditions 36 and 37 in 2013, as well as on ISS Expeditions 60 and 61 during 2018. Parmitano has an asteroid named after him. He was also the first DJ in space.