On June 9, 2025, NASA unveiled the four astronauts who will carry humanity’s next chapter into space. At Johnson Space Center, commander Randy Bresnik accepted the symbolic Artemis baton from the Artemis 2 crew and with it, the weight of a civilization’s ambitions.
The Artemis 3 crew reads like a carefully assembled team for what comes next: Bresnik brings deep EVA and Artemis hardware experience; Parmitano, Italy’s most experienced astronaut and an ESA Colonel, steps up as Pilot, a role that underscores how deeply European space capability is now woven into America’s lunar program; Douglas represents the new generation, direct from the 2021 class; and Rubio, who spent a record 371 days aboard the ISS after his Soyuz sprang a coolant leak, brings a resilience that is almost mythological.
Their immediate task is orbital, docking procedures in Earth orbit, the unglamorous but essential plumbing of deep space architecture. But the destination is the Moon in 2028. And beyond that, everyone here at MarsTV knows what the Moon is: a rehearsal.
Every EVA, every docking test, every life support hour logged in cislunar space is a data point on the long trajectory toward Mars. Artemis is not the destination. It is the training ground.
We’ll be watching every step. Stay with us.
