An Italian will pilot Artemis III
An Italian will pilot Artemis III, and it is not going to the Moon. On 9 June NASA named Luca Parmitano, of the European Space Agency (ESA), as the pilot.
Artemis III is a crewed test flight in Earth orbit, planned for 2027. Orion, the NASA capsule, will rehearse meeting and docking with the lunar landers built by private companies. The Moon landings are planned from Artemis IV onwards.
The crew is commander Randy Bresnik, pilot Luca Parmitano (ESA), and lander specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas. Bob Hines is the backup. On 3 September they visited Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Parmitano has flown before, and one of those days went badly. On 16 July 2013, on his second spacewalk outside the International Space Station, water started to collect at the back of his helmet about 44 minutes in. "My head is really wet, and I have a feeling that it's increasing," he told Mission Control. NASA ended the spacewalk early and he made his way back to the airlock.
On the live feed, the first suspect was the bag of drinking water inside his suit. NASA's investigation cleared it. Inorganic material had clogged a water separator in the suit, and water spilled into the air loop that feeds the helmet. Between 1 and 1.5 litres ended up inside.
The investigation board found two more things. The same suit had already let water into his helmet on the spacewalk of 9 July, and the fault was misdiagnosed. And on 16 July, the spacewalk was not called off as soon as the water was reported.
In 2027 he flies again, this time as the pilot.
ESA; NASA; NASA Suit Water Intrusion Mishap Investigation Report; NASA EVA 23 lessons learned.
