Trump welcomes Artemis 3 crew at the White House ahead of their scheduled 2027 flight

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, welcomed the astronauts of NASA's Artemis 3 mission in the Oval Office at the White House, in the presence of agency director Jared Isaacman, ahead of their scheduled flight next year.

Photos released by the White House showed Trump seated behind his desk surrounded by the astronauts in their blue suits, accompanied by a welcome caption to the crew in the Oval Office; no official details were released about the substance of the meeting.

The mission crew

The crew includes astronaut Randy Bresnik as mission commander, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano of Italy as pilot, along with Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio as mission specialists, while Bob Hines was named as a backup member training with the primary crew.

Rubio holds the record for the longest duration an American astronaut has spent on a single mission, after remaining on the International Space Station for more than a year, while Artemis 3 will be Douglas's first trip to space.

An orbital flight paving the way for a lunar landing

Artemis 3 will not land on the Moon; it is designed as a test flight in Earth orbit set to launch in 2027 on a space launch rocket from Kennedy Space Center, carrying the Orion spacecraft to test rendezvous and docking operations with lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, ahead of the planned Artemis 4 mission in 2028, which is expected to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

Iran issue featured on Trump's day

The meeting came on a day that saw Trump make comments about Iran, saying negotiations with it are taking place through intermediaries without asserting their success, adding, "We have to finish the job, either by agreement or otherwise." He also denied having tasked his deputy J.D. Vance with launching peace negotiations with Tehran, saying the communications were related to delivering medical supplies.

Read also: NASA announces plan for a crewed trip to the Moon as part of the Artemis 4 mission in 2028