The Artemis 3 crew for NASA's next Moon mission has been named. Taking another step toward what could be one of the most challenging crewed space missions in recent history the crew includes three NASA astronauts and one European Space Agency astronaut.

At today’s announcement ceremony held on June 9 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Artemis 3 crew was introduced. The four astronauts are: Commander Randy Bresnik, pilot Luca Parmitano of ESA, and NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio.” Set to launch as soon as late 2027, the historic mission will last roughly two weeks and begin its journey from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida into low Earth orbit.

Randy Bresnik will serve as Artemis 3 mission commander. Bresnick, who has been with Nasa since 2004, previously served in the United States Marine Corps as an F/A-18 pilot who flew combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He has spent 366 days in space across two long-duration missions to the International Space Station, according to ESA.

More recently, Bresnik has served as Assistant-to-the-Chief of the Astronaut Office for Exploration, helping oversee testing for Artemis program hardware.

Andre Douglas has been given the role of mission specialist. Douglas will be making his first-ever space flight after being invited by Nasa to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class and reported for duty in January 2022.

Record-breaking astronaut Frank Rubio will also serve as a Artemis 3 mission specialist. Rubio famously spent over a year on the ISS following a significant coolant leak in his Soyuz spacecraft, marking a NASA record for the longest single mission in space at 371 days.”

Completing the lineup is NASA's Bob Hines who has been selected as a backup astronaut for Artemis 3. After a 23-year career in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot and instructor, Hines joined NASA’s 2017 astronaut class.

He later traveled to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission in 2022, logging 170 days in space. Today's announcement comes just two months after the end of Artemis 2 which saw the crew venture further into space than any humans have ever gone.

At a distance of 252,757 miles from Earth, the crew were so near the Moon that it appeared about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length, according to NASA.