NASA Names Crew for 2027 Lunar Landing, First Since Apollo 17

NASA on June 9, 2026 announced four prime crew members and a backup for Artemis III, scheduled for 2027. The mission will launch from Kennedy Space Center aboard an SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, targeting the lunar south pole. Four astronauts will conduct a surface excursion lasting days while two remain in orbit. This marks the first crewed lunar landing attempt in fifty-four years. Naming a crew publicly signals institutional commitment and typically accelerates schedule convergence across training, hardware, and infrastructure timelines.