NASA has named the four astronauts who will fly Artemis III, a mission that has been quietly stripped of its lunar landing objective. Commander Randy Bresnik, ESA pilot Luca Parmitano, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio—with Bob Hines as backup—are set to launch no earlier than mid-2027 on the Space Launch System. Their Orion capsule will remain in low Earth orbit for roughly two weeks, testing rendezvous and docking with prototype lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. The mission was originally the great return to the Moon, but in February the agency revised it into a complex orbital rehearsal. Administrator Jared Isaacman described it as “the most complex mission ever,” yet the recalibration owes much to a recent New Glenn rocket explosion that damaged Blue Origin’s launch infrastructure.

European capitals welcomed the assignment of Luca Parmitano, the 49-year-old Italian who becomes the first European to pilot a mission in the US lunar programme. In Italy, the announcement was met with celebration but also with a sense of deflation. Commentators recall how officials once promoted the dream of Italian footprints on lunar soil; now, the Moon has slipped beyond the immediate horizon. The Italian space agency still speaks of a future national presence there, though no timeline exists. Viewed from Rome, the mission’s downgrade evokes the fox who dismissed grapes as sour after failing to reach them.

From Washington, NASA markets Artemis III as an indispensable de‑risking step for the 2028 Artemis IV landing at the lunar south pole. The docking trials will coordinate Orion with two separate lander prototypes, requiring multiple heavy‑lift rockets in rapid sequence. Against this technical backdrop, the crew’s composition has drawn scrutiny: all four are men, a lineup that analysts in London note departs from earlier Artemis rosters that prominently included women and astronauts of colour. The fashion house Prada has also inserted itself into the mission’s narrative, collaborating with Axiom Space to produce the liquid‑cooling garment astronauts will wear under their new AxEMU suits, a detail that has added a surreal touch to the sober engineering effort.

The stakes are high. If the orbital choreography succeeds, NASA will have validated the procedures needed to beat China, which aims to land its own taikonauts by 2030, back to the Moon. If the tests falter, the programme risks losing further momentum. The New Glenn explosion, while described as manageable, has amplified doubts about the lander’s readiness. For now, the Artemis III crew will train not for dusty lunar walks but for delicate docking sequences, a rehearsal designed to ensure that when the agency finally aims for the surface, it does not grasp at unripe fruit.