Italy's most experienced and pioneering astronaut Luca Parmitano has been included on the crew of NASA's Artemis III mission, intended to pave the way for a human return to the moon, NASA said Tuesday.

    The 49-year-old from Paterno in Sicily, who was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and was the first Italian to command the International Space Station, will be part of the mission, scheduled for the second half of 2027, which will not be headed to the moon.
    It was designed after NASA's review of the Artemis program to test rendezvous and docking technologies in Earth orbit between the Orion capsule, which will carry the astronauts, and one or two vehicles built by private companies to land on the lunar surface.

Parmitano will serve as pilot, the only non-American astronaut on the crew. In command is Randy Bresnik, who, like Parmitano, has pilot training. Mission specialists are Frank Rubio, another NASA veteran, and Andre Douglas, who was assigned as a reserve on the Artemis II mission.

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