Parmitano, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, will fly alongside three NASA astronauts on the mission, now scheduled for 2027. The announcement was welcomed by Europe’s space sector at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show. “You cannot overestimate that. It's fantastic. It's wonderful to have Luca on board Artemis three,” one official said. Europe has long sought a crew role in the Artemis program. Last year, ESA announced that three European astronauts would join future Artemis missions, but those flights were linked to cooperation with NASA on the Lunar Gateway project. NASA has since suspended that program, forcing both sides to renegotiate parts of their collaboration. ‘New situation’ “So now we have a new situation. Therefore we need to renegotiate the astronaut flights. But we are [on a] very good track with NASA to do these negotiations. And it looks very, very promising,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told TVP World. ESA has already contributed to Artemis through its European Service Module for the Orion spacecraft, providing power and propulsion. NASA said it will use the module again for Artemis III. Artemis III is expected to test docking operations in low Earth orbit, laying the groundwork for future lunar landings from Artemis IV onward.