NASA Defends 4-Man Artemis III Crew as Critics Challenge All-Male Moon Mission Lineup
Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Jun 10
NASA Defends 4-Man Artemis III Crew as Critics Challenge All-Male Moon Mission Lineup
3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Jun 10
Summary
Jared Isaacman said NASA picked Artemis III’s four astronauts on experience, mission-specific skills and availability, pushing back after online criticism of the all-male lineup.
Randy Bresnik, 58, will command the flight, with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, 49, as pilot; Andre Douglas, 40, and Frank Rubio, 49, round out a crew built for docking and rendezvous tests.
NASA says Artemis III is effectively a low-Earth-orbit flight test tied to SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers, making test-pilot backgrounds, program work and current training pipelines central to crew selection.
15 women are among NASA’s roughly 35 active-duty astronauts, and Bresnik said two women are already training for later missions; Isaacman noted the last astronaut class was majority female at 6 of 10.