NASA to unveil 4 astronauts to fly on Artemis III mission

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Jun 9, 2026

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They won’t be flying to the moon, but will be paving the way. NASA is set to announce today the four astronauts assigned to Artemis III, a mission targeting launch from Kennedy Space Center next year.

The agency will reveal the crew during an event slated for 11:30 a.m. from Johnson Space Center in Houston, which will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@NASA and on the agency’s NASA+ platform.

The mission will mark the third launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, but only the second with crew on board following this year’s successful lunar flyby Artemis II mission.

Instead of returning to the moon, Artemis III will remain in low-Earth orbit with its primary objective of testing out Orion’s docking capability with one or both of the two lunar landers that could be tasked to fly the next mission, Artemis IV.

Those are SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK2 landers. NASA had previously stated that pathfinder versions of both landers equipped with docking capability were pushing toward being ready for what had been targeted as a mid 2027 launch.

NASA promised an update to the mission plan in addition to the astronaut assignments.

SpaceX remains in testing phase with Starship, which most recently flew this month on its 12th suborbital flight from the company’s Texas launch site Starbase. The spacecraft, though, for now remains grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration following an issue with the Super Heavy booster that was not able to make a controlled return after the upper stage Starship separated from it after launch.

Elon Musk’s company continues to build out a launch tower at KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A adjacent to its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch pad. SpaceX’s goal is to begin operational launches from KSC before the end of the year.

Blue Origin’s lander was supposed to launch atop the company’s New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36, but that pad suffered major damage after a massive explosion of a New Glenn rocket during a static fire test last month.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that despite the pad damage, NASA and Blue Origin were pushing forward with the Blue Moon work, which could mean the agency will seek an alternative rocket to launch the lander if the Canaveral pad is not ready by the time Artemis III flies.

If both landers are ready, the Artemis III mission could feature three launches: SLS from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B, Starship from KSC’s tower at 39-A and Blue Moon from Canaveral’s LC-36, potentially.

The agency would then pick one of the two landers for Artemis IV, which remains on NASA’s target calendar for launch in 2028 before the end of Trump’s presidency.

That’s the mission that aims to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

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