According to his official biography, mission specialist Andre Douglas was born in Miami but spent his childhood and adolescence in Chesapeake. He graduated from Western Branch High School in 2004, where he was a member of the National Honor Society.
This will be his first space flight.
In 2024, NASA chose Douglas as a backup astronaut for the Artemis II test mission. This trip lasted ten days and took the crew on a journey around the Moon, marking a historic breakthrough in the program.
The Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch in late 2027, represents the next stage in the agency’s efforts to return humans to the lunar surface. Artemis III will not land. It will conduct tests in Earth orbit with one or both of its commercially developed lunar landers.
The other astronauts selected for the crew alongside Douglas are Colonel Frank Rubio, also a mission specialist, pilot Luca Parmitano and commander Randy Bresnik.