NASA / BILL STAFFORD
Commander
Randy Bresnik
Shuttle and International Space Station veteran, former Expedition 53 commander and Marine Corps test pilot.
View Randy Bresnik’s profile ↗Mission 03 / Target 2027 / NASA Artemis
ARTEMIS III MISSION
Artemis III is currently planned for 2027. It is an integrated Orion / commercial lunar lander demonstration mission in low Earth orbit. The flight will validate operations needed before Artemis IV’s planned crewed lunar landing.
Four astronauts will test rendezvous, docking and integrated spacecraft operations with commercial lander test vehicles. Mission plans and dates remain subject to change.
Flight crew / Announced 9 June 2026
MEET THE ARTEMIS III CREW
NASA / BILL STAFFORD
Pilot
Luca Parmitano
Italian test pilot, former Expedition 61 commander and veteran of two long-duration space station missions.
View Luca Parmitano’s profile ↗
NASA / BILL STAFFORD
Mission Specialist
Frank Rubio
Physician, Army aviator and veteran of a record-setting 371-day continuous spaceflight.
View Frank Rubio’s profile ↗
NASA / BILL STAFFORD
Mission Specialist
Andre Douglas
Systems engineer and former Coast Guard officer who trained as the Artemis II backup. Artemis III will be his first spaceflight.
View Andre Douglas’s profile ↗Crew assignments: NASA’s 9 June 2026 Artemis III crew announcement. Agency marks identify each astronaut’s agency; Artemis Tracker is independent.
The mission / Proving the interfaces
Orion meets the commercial landers.
Integrated operations in Earth orbit
Orion carries the crew aboard NASA’s Space Launch System. The mission will demonstrate the rendezvous, docking, communications and coordinated operations needed to work with commercial lunar lander hardware.
NASA mission overview ↗Two lander test vehicles
NASA’s July plan describes a Blue Origin Blue Moon test article and a SpaceX Starship test article. The sequence rehearses critical operations close to Earth before crews depend on them near the Moon.
Explore Blue Moon · Explore Starship HLSThe road back to the Moon
From Artemis II to Artemis IV.
Artemis II · Mission complete
The April 2026 crewed lunar flyby tested Orion with astronauts aboard. It launched on 1 April 2026 at 22:35 UTC / 18:35 EDT and completed a mission lasting 9 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes.
Explore the mission archive →Artemis IV · Planned lunar landing
Artemis III will validate operations needed for Artemis IV’s planned crewed lunar landing. The Earth-orbit demonstration is a step towards NASA’s long-term return to the Moon.
NASA Artemis IV overview ↗Programme progress / NASA published 15 September 2026
Crew visits Kennedy as booster integration advances.
NASA’s September report documents the crew and backup crew’s first joint visit to Kennedy Space Center. The visit took place on 2 September 2026.
Read the September mission update →Sources & mission status
Checked 20 September 2026. The 2027 target is a planning year, not a confirmed launch day. This page covers mission preparations; it does not present simulated positions as live telemetry.