Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will be the pilot of Artemis III, which will mark a milestone in Europe’s participation in the program that will take a human being to the Moon again.
NASA has the four-member crew announced. assigned to the Artemis III mission, selecting Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano as the mission’s pilot. The selection makes Parmitano the first European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut assigned to NASA’s Artemis program.
The announcement was made on June 9, 2026 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and follows Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen’s participation in Artemis II. Parmitano will join NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, who will serve as mission commander, along with mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio.
The assignment marks a milestone for both Europe and Italy, further strengthening European participation in the Artemis programme. In fact, Europe has been supporting the program from the early stages, supplying, among other things, the European Service Module (ESM) that powers the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis missions.
Europe’s first Artemis astronaut
Parmitano, an Italian Air Force colonel, test pilot and veteran astronaut, was selected by ESA in 2009 and has accumulated 366 days in space on two long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During his second mission in 2019, he became the first Italian and third European astronaut to assume command of the ISS.
His career includes six extravehicular activities (EVAs), also commonly known as “spacewalks,” including two during his first mission to the ISS and four during his second. Parmitano is also known for dealing with a dangerous water leak in a spacesuit during an EVA in 2013, his second overall, an incident that led to major safety improvements for future spacewalks.
While in the US, Parmitano has been the ESA liaison at the Johnson Space Center, CapCom (Capsule Communicator), and EVA instructor. Additionally, it also participated in Underway Recovery Test 12 which simulated Artemis recovery operations off the coast of California.
After initially flying operationally in the Italian Air Force in the A-11 AMX, Parmitano graduated as an experimental test pilot at EPNER, the French test pilot school in Istres. During his career, he has accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 40 types of aircraft.
In 2020, The aviationist I had the opportunity to interview Luca Parmitano about his experience as a pilot in the Italian Air Force and as an astronaut. You can find it here (in English) or embedded at the end of this story (in Italian).
Europe and Artemis
The selection of Parmitano also reflects the European effort and investment in NASA’s lunar exploration plans. Indeed, Europe continues its long-standing cooperation with NASA, which already maintains important cooperation with the International Space Station.
ESA secured major investments in Orion, particularly the European Service Module (ESM), which provides propulsion, electrical power, thermal regulation and life support functions for each Artemis mission. Built by Airbus Defense and Space on behalf of ESA, the ESM has become one of Europe’s most important contributions to the Artemis program and one of the largest industrial partnerships between Europe and the United States in the space sector.
The selection also comes at a time when lunar exploration is increasingly being viewed through a geopolitical lens. Replicate the ISS model, through the Artemis program and the Artemis AccordsThe United States formed a coalition of international partners committed to a common framework for future exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.
Europe has become a major contributor to that effort, providing both technological capabilities and financial investment. Parmitano is just the first European astronaut to now join the effort, and more are already planned for future missions.
Italy’s participation in space flights
The selection of Parmitano also highlights Italy’s long-standing contribution to international human spaceflight. The country has a long tradition in orbital flight, becoming in 1964 the third nation in the worldafter the United States and the Soviet Union, to independently operate a space launch site and the fifth to launch its own satellite, called San Marco 1.
Over the past three decades, Italian industry has played a central role in the development of human spaceflight infrastructure. Through Thales Alenia Space Italia, Italy became a major contributor to the International Space Station, manufacturing important pressurized elements including Harmony (Node 2), Tranquility (Node 3), the Cupola observation module and the multipurpose logistics modules used during space shuttle operations.
That experience is now carrying over to the Artemis era. Thales Alenia Space was a key contributor to the Lunar Gateway programme, providing important structural elements for modules such as HALO and the Lunar I-Hab habitat being developed for ESA. After the cancellation of DoorNASA signed a new agreement with Italy to cooperate in the construction of the future lunar base.
The result is a remarkable continuity between generations of exploration programs: modules built in Italy helped sustain the human presence in low Earth orbit aboard the ISS, elements built in Italy will support future operations on the surface of the Moon, and now an Italian astronaut has become the first European assigned to an Artemis mission.
Artemis III
Previous plans called for Artemis III to be the first manned lunar landing since Apollo 17. The mission, set to launch in 2027, has now evolved to focus on validating the technologies needed for future operations on the lunar surface.
According to NASA, the crew will launch aboard Orion and conduct rendezvous and docking demonstrations with commercial lunar landing systems, Starship and Blue Moon, developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively. The mission aims to verify procedures, software, propulsion interfaces and life support systems before astronauts attempt future lunar landing missions.
Blue Moon will be the first to launch, followed by Orion and the four astronauts. The two spacecraft will dock for about two days, allowing astronauts to conduct tests with Blue Moon.
Blue Moon will then undock, allowing Starship to dock with Orion for a day, although astronauts will not be able to board it. The entire mission will last approximately two weeks.
As a pilot, Parmitano will play a central role in executing these complex spacecraft operations. Similar to the proximity operations tested during Artemis II, it will likely take manual control of Orion to test capsule handling in close proximity to the two landers, in addition to monitoring automated rendezvous and docking operations.
