Nasa has named the Artemis III crew - what is their mission?

Nasa has named the Artemis III crew - what is their mission?Just nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePallab Ghosh,Science CorrespondentandAlison Francis,Senior Science Journalist NASA/Reid WisemanThe Earth as seen from the Artemis II mission's Orion space capsuleNasa has named the four astronauts for its Artemis III mission, due to launch in 2027. They will not land on the Moon, but will fly to low Earth orbit where they will dock with prototype lunar landers in a rehearsal for the landing to come.The 2028 Artemis IV mission is scheduled to put American astronauts on the Moon for the first time since 1972.What will the Artemis III mission do?Artemis III will launch on Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The launch date has not yet been confirmed. The four astronauts will travel inside the Orion capsule, the same vehicle used during the Artemis II mission in April 2026.Unlike in that mission, Orion will not loop around the Moon during Artemis III. Instead, it will remain in low Earth orbit, around 290 miles above the planet - roughly the distance from Manchester to Edinburgh, and 40 miles higher than the International Space Station (ISS).That is where it will rendezvous and dock with the prototype lunar landers, called pathfinders. At least one crew member is expected to climb inside a lander to test the hatches, life-support connections and the new Axiom spacesuits.The Axiom suits are literally and figuratively cool, designed by the Italian fashion house Prada and built by Houston-based Axiom Space. Axiom has done the engineering - including, for the first time, a backup cooling loop in case the primary fails. Prada is responsible for the inner garment that is designed to distribute chilled water across the body during the eight-hour spacewalks on the Moon planned as part of the subsequent Artemis IV mission. The Artemis III crew will be aboard Orion for slightly longer than the nine days spent there by the A...