NASA Taps US, Italian Astronauts for Artemis III Mission With SpaceX, Blue Origin Mooncraft

Now, moving on to our mission specialist for Artemis 3, test engineer and Coast Guard reserve commander, making his first spaceflight, mission specialist Andre Douglas. And we have Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot, family medicine physician, and record-setting astronaut, mission specialist Colonel Frank Rubio. Now on to our pilot, two-time flyer, ESA astronaut, the first Italian space station commander, Italian Air Force colonel and test pilot, Luca Parmitano. Now to our commander, two-time astronaut, former space station commander, Marine Corps colonel and test pilot with more than 7,000 flight hours, Artemis 3 commander, Randy Bresnik. I apologize in advance if I get emotional. I'm honored by the role that I've been given. I'm also very humbled by the task in front of us. But first and foremost, I'm grateful. We'd also like to thank NASA leadership and our ESA leadership for the opportunity to represent all of humanity from this spaceship Earth that we will carry forward into the Artemis, as we execute this Artemis mission, extending human spaceflight into the future and exploring the cosmos. We just want to say how completely fired up we are for you. I hope you saw us down there cheering, screaming as loud as we could. And you guys know because you work in the office, we've been carrying these batons around for way too long. And so with that, the Artemis 2 crew comrade hands you the baton. You got the controls. While this may look like just a baton right now it's in my hand, it feels like this big flaming, you know, Olympic torch that you, Reed, Christina, Victor, and Jeremy lit. And the world was entranced by its flame for the 10 days of the mission. We, the Artemis 3 crew, are honored to be able to carry this torch forward, to be able to execute our mission, to make that flame burn brighter and pass it on and be able to pass that flame on to the next crew that's out here. Throughout the duration of the Artemis 3 mission, these astronauts will continue to test the Orion spacecraft. They will rendezvous and dock with the Blue Origin lander and then again with the SpaceX lander. Think about how many spacecraft, all of which will eventually carry human beings, will be in orbit at the same time. From Dragon, Shenzhou, Soyuz, possibly Starliner, Starship, and Blue Origin landers, this seems like the beginning of the future that we imagined as children. This seems like the very beginning of Earth's first Starfleet to me. As you know, we had a significant anomaly at our launch complex 36A on May 28th. The response from NASA, our partners, and customers has been extraordinary. We're making excellent progress on the investigation and pad cleanup. We'll begin rebuilding once cleanup is complete while continuing construction at launch complex 36B.