Spaceflight

NASA announces Artemis 3 astronauts: See them here

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Kelly Kizer Whitt
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Deborah Byrd
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Will Triggs
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June 9, 2026
Four men in orange flight suits, 2 seated and 2 stsnding holding space helmets, posing for a portrait.
The Artemis 3 astronauts are, left to right, Andre Douglas, Luca Parmitano, Randy Bresnik and Frank Rubio. Image via NASA/ Bill Stafford.

Read more: Moon base update! NASA unveils next steps

NASA announces Artemis 3 astronauts

On Tuesday, June 9, 2026, NASA announced the four astronauts chosen for the Artemis 3 mission. The astronauts are Mission Specialist Andre Douglas, who is making his 1st space flight; Mission Specialist Frank Rubio, who spent an American world-record 371 consecutive days in space; Pilot Luca Parmitano, who is an Italian and ESA astronaut; and Commander Randy Bresnik, who will be on his 3rd space mission.

NASA also announced a backup crew member, Bob Hines. The agency did not choose a woman for Artemis 3, despite the fact that 40% of the current astronaut corps are women.

You can read more about the astronauts here.

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Rewatch NASA’s announcement of the new astronauts for the Artemis 3 mission here.

A cylindrical spacecraft with 4 big solar panels floating over Earth, with sun peeking over the horizon.
The Artemis 3 mission – which should launch in 2027 – will not visit the moon. Instead it will orbit Earth to test out docking with the commercial spacecraft that will help the astronauts land on the moon. NASA will announce the 4 astronauts for Artemis 3 on June 9, 2026. Image via NASA.

What will happen during the Artemis 3 mission?

The Artemis 3 mission is currently scheduled to launch in late 2027. It was once going to be a moon-landing mission, but administrator Jared Isaacman recently introduced a new timeline and mission goal. Artemis 3 will not go to the moon. Instead, it will orbit Earth, providing NASA a chance to test how well the Orion crew module is able to dock with the lunar landers currently in development for the Artemis missions: That is, SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon.

NASA said in the meeting Tuesday that its reasoning for staying in Earth’s orbit for Artemis 3 is to use it as a test flight across multiple systems, including a new docking system, in a high-stakes space environment but still close to home. It plans to use the mission to reduce risk for future missions. It’s also planning for better communications between Orion and Earth, including getting images more quickly to the public.

NASA described the recent Blue Origin explosion by saying “setbacks are a learning opportunity.” Blue Origin’s lander design will rendezvous with Orion in Earth orbit for about two days during the Artemis 3 mission. Orion will then detach and await rendezvous with Starship. Those two will dock and be together for about a day before separating. In total, the Artemis 3 mission should last about two weeks.

Looking back at Artemis 2

The Artemis 2 mission was a phenomenal success. See a gallery of awe-inspiring images of the mission.

The Artemis 2 mission was a trip around the moon that took the four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – farther from Earth than humans have ever been. The Artemis 2 test flight launched on April 1, 2026, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and splashed down off the coast of California on April 10.

2 smiling people, a man and a woman, in orange flight suits, standing by the door of a helicopter.
The Artemis 2 mission was a roaring success! Astronauts Victor Glover, pilot, left, and Christina Koch, mission specialist, were all smiles as they sat in a helicopter on the flight deck of USS John P. Murtha. Their Orion spacecraft splashed down at 5:07 p.m. Friday, April 10, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Image via Bill Ingalls/ NASA.
2 smiling men in orange flight suits sitting in the door of a helicopter, 1 pointing at the camera.
Welcome home! Astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander, left, and Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist from the Canadian Space Agency, sit in a navy helicopter after their successful return to Earth on Friday, April 10, 2026. Image via Bill Ingalls/ NASA.
A space capsule splashes into a wide blue sea, with 3 red and white parachutes beginning to collapse above.
The Artemis 2 mission’s Orion spacecraft – named Integrity by the 4 astronauts aboard – safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on April 10, 2026. Image via NASA.
Yellow helicopter hovering above a raft with humans aboard, 1 person being lifted toward the helicopter.
Navy divers and Artemis 2 astronauts aboard an inflatable raft are approached by helicopters and lifted away to the recovery ship, following splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California, on Friday, April 10, 2026. The astronauts have just climbed out of NASA’s Orion spacecraft. It carried Artemis 2 Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, along with Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Image via James Blair/ NASA.

Highlights of the Artemis 2 moon mission

As they soared some 4,600 miles (7,400 km) above the lunar surface on April 6, the brave astronauts had no contact with Earth for 40 minutes. This communications outage was expected, as the moon was blocking all signals between our planet and the spacecraft. It was during that time that the crew set the new distance record: 252,756 miles (406,771 km), the greatest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.

They also became the first humans to see parts of the moon’s far side in daylight. During the closest approach, some 21% of the moon’s far side was illuminated by the sun, revealing parts of our natural satellite that were in darkness for the Apollo astronauts. The unlit portions of the moon were interesting, too; the Artemis 2 crew reported seeing at least four impact flashes from micrometeorites hitting the lunar surface.

Soon after Earth reappeared over the lunar horizon – and communications with mission control were restored – the crew was treated to a unique total eclipse of the sun. For around an hour, the sun’s wispy outer atmosphere – the corona – formed a beautiful, bright halo around the moon. And with the sun obscured, the astronauts also had a stunning view of the stars. Wiseman said:

It’s just indescribable. No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal … There’s no adjectives. I’m going to need to invent some new ones, there’s absolutely no words to describe what we are looking at out this window.

Best images from Artemis 2

Cratered moon in the foreground, with Earth lit as a crescent, one end behind the moon's horizon.
NASA calls this view of Earth an “earthset.” But it’s not like a sunset on Earth. It’s not caused by the spin of the moon. Instead, it’s caused by the movement of the spacecraft as it sails at thousands of miles per hour above the lunar surface. The astronauts captured it through the window of the Orion spacecraft on April 6, 2026, during the Artemis 2 crew’s flyby of the moon. Image via NASA.
Silhouette of a woman's face, looking out a spacecraft window toward Earth filling the window.
Here’s astronaut Christina Koch looking back at Earth, out the window of the Orion spacecraft – aka Integrity – on its way to the moon. Image via NASA.
Whole planet Earth, and a triangle of fuzzy, diffuse light coming up from horizon, and bright dot beside it.
Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman captured this image of Earth as the Orion spacecraft left Earth orbit and began its figure-8 journey to the moon and back. North is up. This is the night side of Earth lit by the almost full moon. Look closely and you’ll see city lights in Europe and Africa. The large brown area is the Sahara. Spain is above it. Earth is eclipsing the sun. A thin line of atmosphere glows from sunlight shining through it. The glow of zodiacal light shines at the upper left: sunlight illuminating dust in the inner solar system. The bright object at upper left is Venus. Image via Reed Wiseman/ NASA.

More historic photos

Artemis 2 spacecraft on the left, a crescent moon in the center and a tiny crescent Earth on the right.
This image, from a camera on the Artemis 2 spacecraft’s solar panel, was taken just before the craft flew behind the moon on its historic flyby on April 6, 2026. It captured all living earthlings in a single view, including those of us on the planet itself, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in near-Earth space and the 4 brave astronauts who flew around the moon. Image via NASA.
Profile of a man in a darkened room, peering upward through machinery.
Artemis 2 Commander Reid Wiseman peers out a window of the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis 2 crew’s flyby of the moon on April 6, 2026. Image via NASA.
Moon with a large, dark impact crater centered and many smaller craters near the horizon at upper right.
The region in the center of this image is Orientale basin. It’s a 600-mile-wide (965 km) impact crater that lies along the transition between the near and far sides of the moon. So it’s sometimes partly visible from Earth. We’re seeing it here fully illuminated by sunlight; this is the first time it’s been seen at lunar “noon” by human eyes. The black patch of ancient lava in the center punched through the moon’s crust billions of years ago. The small, bright crater to its left is Byrgius, which has 250-mile (400 km) rays extending out from its basin. See a cropped version of this image. Image via NASA/ Unsplash.
In spacecraft, 4 smiling astronauts close together for a pic, at all angles to each other.
Midway through their 7-hour lunar observation period on April 6, the Artemis 2 crew members – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – pause to turn the camera around for a selfie inside the Orion spacecraft. Image via NASA.
Dark moon with a whitish glow around it that is distant sunlight; stars visible.
This image from April 6, 2026, shows the moon fully eclipsing the sun. From the crew’s perspective, the moon appears large enough to completely block the sun. It created nearly 54 minutes of totality and extended the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity’s return to deep space. Light reflected off Earth illuminates the nearside of the moon with a faint glow. Image via NASA.

Best videos from Artemis 2

An emotional moment for the Artemis 2 crew

Perhaps the most touching moment of the mission so far came when the crew announced that they’d like to name some craters they could see through their windows.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told NASA mission controllers that they’d like to name one unnamed crater on the moon’s far side “Integrity”, after their spacecraft. And the second he asked to name “Carroll”, after fellow crew member Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who died in 2020. This crater is on the moon’s near side-far side border, meaning it is sometimes visible from Earth.

Coming just after the crew had surpassed the record for the greatest distance from Earth ever reached by humans, it was a beautifully emotional moment. Take a look at the videos below.

Launch image

Artemis: A rocket atop a towering pillar of flames and smoke zooms upward.
Artemis 2 launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026. Image via Greg Diesel Walck.

Meet Christina Koch

Meet Victor Glover

Meet Jeremy Hansen

Meet Reid Wiseman

What was the Artemis 1 moon mission?

In November 2022, NASA launched an uncrewed spacecraft to flyby the moon. The Artemis 1 mission successfully navigated a course that looped around the moon and returned safely to Earth. This mission set the stage for the crewed Artemis 2 mission.

Part of sunlit spacecraft in the foreground, and the full moon in the background in black space.
Here’s NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft capturing a selfie as it flew near the moon in November 2022. Image via NASA.

NASA announced major changes to Artemis program in late March

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at a press conference on March 24 that major overhauls were coming to the Artemis program.

These changes include a more-frequent schedule of launches for the 6-million-pound (2.7 million kg) rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS). The goal now is to have just 10 months between launches. Earlier, NASA had envisioned 3 1/2 years between launches.

And the next launch after Artemis 2 – Artemis 3 – will no longer be landing on the moon. Instead, it’ll remain in low-Earth orbit to “get back to basics,” as Isaacman said. Artemis 3 will be used to test the complex systems required for future moon landings, for example, rendezvous and docking. So, Isaacman said, Artemis 3 will launch in late 2027. NASA also wants to give the astronauts opportunities to check out spacesuit performance.

Artemis 4 and 5, which would be the moon-landing missions, could happen in 2028.

A tall, mostly orange rocket stands on a platform under a deep blue sky.
The Artemis 2 spacecraft has become the 1st mission in more than half a century to carry people around the moon, before returning to Earth. The Artemis 2 craft – consisting of the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and the Orion crew capsule – was poised to go to the moon since January 17, 2026. That’s when NASA 1st rolled the Artemis 2 craft to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image via NASA/ Ben Smegelsky.
A tall rocket in the open doorway of a giant building full of machinery.
Reid Wiseman shared this view of the Artemis 2 rocket on January 17, 2026, as it was rolling out to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image via Reid Wiseman/ NASA.

The vision of the Artemis program

Ultimately, the Artemis program aims to send the first humans back to the moon this decade. When they go, they’ll be aiming for the moon’s south pole, a place that scientists discovered in recent decades has large amounts of water ice. Water contains oxygen, so processing it will make it possible for future astronauts to stay longer.

Someday, visionaries still hope, we will have a permanent presence on the moon, and we will go to Mars.

Indeed, such dreams are an integral part of humanity’s natural wanderlust in the 21st century. And so future historians might look back at our time – and at the Artemis missions – as the moment humanity took a true giant leap to space, maybe this time for good.

Bottom line: On June 9, 2026, NASA announced the four astronauts who will fly aboard the Artemis 3 mission. See them here. Artemis 3 is currently scheduled to launch in 2027.

Via NASA

Read more: Moon base update! NASA unveils next steps

Read more: Ice on the moon is widespread, new study shows

Posted 
June 9, 2026
 in 
Spaceflight

Kelly Kizer Whitt

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About the Author:
Kelly Kizer Whitt - EarthSky’s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube - writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She's been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children's picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.

Deborah Byrd

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About the Author:
Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.

Will Triggs

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About the Author:
Will Triggs fell in love with stargazing after moving to England's east coast, where the dark skies allowed him to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way for the first time. Producing content across EarthSky's website, newsletter and YouTube channel, he is responsible for EarthSky stories on astrophysics, the wonders of the night sky, and our changing Earth.

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