NASA announced that Bresnik will lead the four-member crew of Artemis II, alongside pilot Luca Parmitano and mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas. The mission will test critical rendezvous and docking operations between NASA’s Orion spacecraft and next-generation lunar landing systems being developed by private partners, including SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The mission forms part of the broader Artemis Program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era. Scheduled for launch in late 2027 from the Kennedy Space Center, Artemis III is expected to play a major role in preparing future lunar landing operations and long-term exploration missions.
A retired United States Marine Corps officer, Randolph Bresnik is one of NASA’s most experienced astronauts. Born in 1967 in Fort Knox, he previously flew aboard a Space Shuttle mission in 2009 and later travelled to the International Space Station in 2017, where he served as commander of Expedition 53. Following the announcement, Bresnik said he was grateful for the opportunity to help carry forward the next chapter of human space exploration.
The appointment has also drawn attention in Slovenia, where Bresnik’s family origins can be traced to the Upper Savinja Valley. He has visited the country on several occasions, most recently in 2024 and has actively supported cooperation between Slovenia and the United States in the space sector. In the same year, he participated in the signing of an agreement that brought Slovenia into closer cooperation with NASA’s Artemis programme, further strengthening ties between the two countries in science and space exploration.
