NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman defended the all-male crew for the upcoming Artemis III mission — named after the Greek goddess.
NASA on Tuesday announced the four astronauts involved in the 2027 mission, which will operate as a test run for future moon landings, but received pushback online over selecting an all-male crew.
“It’s 2026 and you picked an all-male crew. You should be ashamed,” one critic wrote on X. Other social media users pointed out the irony of an all-male crew participating in a mission named after a Greek goddess.
Isaacman took to X Wednesday to address the complaints, noting he had “seen reactions ranging from disappointment to outrage.”
“I have seen reactions ranging from disappointment to outrage. I have personally been to space twice with 50% female crews. My closest advisors and some of the smartest engineers I know are women. In our latest NASA leadership organization, nearly 50% of the Center Directors and Mission Directorate leadership are women,” he wrote.
“In a world with so much controversy, I hope this can be a moment where we celebrate the astronauts selected, respect the integrity of the process, and recognize the extraordinary depth of talent across the entire corps,” he later added.
The NASA boss noted that the Astronaut Office assigns the crew that “gives the mission the best chance of meeting its objectives,” and looks at individual astronauts’ backgrounds, expertise and availability before deciding who goes on what mission.
“The Artemis III astronauts are experienced, qualified and deserve to be celebrated for the mission they have been assigned, just as the crews that follow will be celebrated when their time comes,” Isaacman added of the all-male crew.
He added: “Those raising this concern may not be aware of the pipeline of crews already preparing to launch to the Space Station, or those who have been undergoing lunar-specific training that would be a better fit for a future surface mission.”
NASA on Tuesday announced that Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano will orbit the Earth while practicing docking the Orion capsule with two lunar landers.
The two-week mission is targeted for 2027 and will rely on lunar landers from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
The Artemis program is looking to get astronauts back on the moon’s surface for the first time since the 1970s. A recent revamp of the program hopes to fast-track the mission similarly to the Apollo era, with the upcoming space flight around Earth before a lunar landing in 2028.
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