Italian European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano will be the first European to take part in NASA's Artemis programme, US space agency NASA's chief Jared Isaacman announced on Tuesday.
Parmitano, 49, will be one of four astronauts on Artemis 3, Isaacman said. It is expected to launch in 2027.
However, the spacecraft is not expected to go to the Moon but only into the Earth's orbit for tests.
The crew is also to include US astronauts Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio and Randy Bresnik, with Bob Hines on standby as a backup in an emergency.
Unlike originally planned, no Moon landing is envisaged on Artemis 3. Instead, the docking of the Orion spacecraft with lunar landing systems is to be tested.
With the Artemis programme, NASA is aiming for a permanent presence on the Moon.
"I am honoured to be part of this crew, and humbled at the same time: my crew mates bring a wealth of different experiences, and I'm looking forward to working with them, eager to learn and to contribute as much as I can in my role," Parmitano said in a statement.
"I am very grateful to the Italian Air Force for providing me with training in my early stages; to the Italian Space Agency - and Italy as a whole - for trusting me with their very first long duration flight when I was just a rookie; and to the European Space Agency for the training, endless support and amazing opportunities I have had since I became an ESA astronaut, and to NASA for its leadership in returning humanity to the Moon."
Parmitano reacted with visible emotion to his selection as the first European to fly on NASA's Artemis Moon programme.
Addressing his wife, his daughters and other members of his family from Houston on Tuesday, Parmitano said: "You are the energy that feeds my soul, and your love is the spark that ignites every passion. Thank you, Grazie!" His voice briefly broke as he spoke.
Parmitano trained at the Italian Air Force Academy and worked as a test pilot. He was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009, has flown to the International Space Station (ISS) twice and has taken part in several docking manoeuvres there.
ESA chief Josef Aschbacher welcomed Parmitano's selection at the official presentation of the Artemis 3 astronauts in Houston, saying the agency was proud that a European astronaut would help pilot the mission alongside the NASA commander.
Aschbacher said Parmitano was an ideal choice for the role and joked that he would bring some Italian lightness to the cockpit.
He also praised Parmitano's professionalism during a dramatic 2013 spacewalk, when his helmet filled with water and he narrowly made it back on board.
Europe's former space chief Jan Wörner also congratulated Parmitano. "Luca is an absolute professional and also a very likeable person," he told dpa.
During Wörner's tenure as director general of ESA from 2015 to 2021, Parmitano flew to space for the second time in 2019. "It's great that a European can take part in the Artemis programme," Wörner said. "My expectation and hope is that a European will also be there when we land on the Moon."
Aschbacher had said at the end of 2025: "I have decided that the first Europeans to fly on a lunar mission will be ESA astronauts of German, French, and Italian nationality." Germany, he said, would go first.
The two German ESA astronauts, Alexander Gerst and Matthias Maurer, had repeatedly stressed that they would very much welcome the opportunity.
On Tuesday, Aschbacher told dpa that NASA's requirements had been decisive in Parmitano's selection, saying the agency had specifically been looking for a test pilot.
Parmitano is the only test pilot in ESA's astronaut corps, Aschbacher said.
Aschbacher said his earlier statement that a German astronaut would be the first European on an Artemis lunar mission still stood, arguing that Artemis 3 was an Earth-orbit test mission rather than a flight to the Moon in the traditional sense.
He also said ESA and NASA would have to reopen talks after NASA put the Lunar Gateway project on hold. ESA was in a good starting position, Aschbacher said, but there were no commitments yet and a European flight to the lunar surface was not guaranteed.
