NASA's Artemis III: Space agency to reveal astronauts for mission on June 9

NASA has repurposed Artemis III into an Earth-orbit mission to test docking capabilities of two crewed spacecraft.

NASA has said that it will reveal the crew of upcoming Artemis III mission next month. The announcement will be made during a live event beginning at 8:30 pm IST on June 9 at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Artemis III, which was supposed to be a Moon landing mission, is scheduled to launch in mid-2027.

In February this year, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced that Artemis III has been repurposed to an Earth-orbit mission to test docking capabilities of two crewed spacecraft.

According to the new plan, two human-rated landers built by either Elon Musk's SpaceX or Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin will demonstrate technologies needed to dock with NASA's Orion spacecraft before attempting a lunar landing in 2028 during Artemis IV.

"The mission will test critical rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial human landing systems needed to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface. Building on the successful Artemis II crewed test flight in April, Artemis III will pave the way for future surface missions," NASA said in a statement.

Artemis III will follow the immensely successful Artemis II which took four astronauts to the lunar orbit in April. During Artemis II, NASA tested the Orion spacecraft and its critical life-support systems in deep space over ten days in what was the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972.