NASA has announced it will reveal the crew for the Artemis III mission during a live event on Tuesday, June 9, at 11 a.m. EDT from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Because nothing says "pushing the boundaries of human exploration" like a carefully orchestrated press conference.
The event will stream on NASA+ and YouTube, because even space agencies have realized that terrestrial TV is so 20th century. After the announcement, the newly minted Artemis III astronauts will be available for interviews - both in-person and virtual - presumably to answer the inevitable question, "What's it like to be strapped to a rocket the size of a skyscraper?"
For those media types hoping to score a one-on-one, deadlines are strict: international media must apply by May 28, U.S. media by June 4. Miss the cutoff, and you'll have to settle for watching the livestream like the rest of us mortals.
Artemis III will launch four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Orion spacecraft, riding the SLS rocket - a vehicle that has cost more to develop than some small countries' GDPs. The mission will test critical rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial lunar landers, which is NASA-speak for "we need to make sure these things can find each other in the dark."
Building on the success of the Artemis II crewed test flight in April, Artemis III is meant to pave the way for future surface missions. Because apparently, the Apollo program wasn't enough - we now have to do it all over again, but with better Wi-Fi and more hashtags.
NASA describes this as part of a "Golden Age of innovation and exploration," which will include increasingly complex missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and establishing an enduring human presence - you know, the usual reasons we send people to barren rocks. And eventually, Mars. Because the Moon is just a stepping stone to a planet that's even harder to get to.