NASA Announces Artemis 3 Crew, First European Astronaut Selected

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today announced the crew for the Artemis 3 mission. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano has become the first European selected, and will join three American astronauts to carry out the mission.

According to combined reports from AFP and Reuters, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman made the announcement at a ceremony held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Parmitano will represent the European Space Agency (ESA) as one of the four core crew members for the Artemis 3 mission, which is targeted for launch in late 2027.

Parmitano was visibly emotional at the announcement ceremony, thanking his family and the space agencies that made this appointment possible. He described Italy as his "launch pad" to space, the European Space Agency as a bridge, and NASA as "the rocket, both literally and figuratively."

During the recently completed Artemis 2 mission this spring, four astronauts completed the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years. The primary objectives of the Artemis 3 mission include testing the performance of NASA's Orion spacecraft and conducting docking tests with lunar landers developed by private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin.