NASA's Artemis III astronauts visited the White House on Oct. 28 and posed with President Donald Trump, Space.com reported, as the agency prepares a crewed test of commercial moon landers planned for summer 2027¹.

The crew is NASA's Randy Bresnik as commander, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio as mission specialists, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano as pilot^1,2. Space.com said backup astronaut Bob Hines and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also attended¹.

The visit came nearly six months after the Artemis II crew stopped by on April 29, 19 days after that flight around the moon¹. Isaacman wrote on X that it was "a great day at the White House with President Trump and the talented crew of Artemis III"¹.

Artemis III is no longer NASA's first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17. Engadget said the agency overhauled the program earlier this year, pushing that landing to Artemis IV in 2028 and turning Artemis III into a lander-operations test in low Earth orbit². Space.com likewise said the roughly two-week mission would aim to dock NASA's Orion capsule with SpaceX's Starship and/or Blue Origin's Blue Moon¹.

Engadget, citing NASA's plan, said the mission would start with Blue Origin launching a Blue Moon Mark 2 test vehicle on New Glenn to about 273 miles altitude, followed by SLS launching Orion to about 345 miles for a rendezvous². The crew would spend a couple of days checking the lander's atmosphere, software, flight-control systems and life support before returning to Orion².

SpaceX would then launch Starship version 3 with a docking system; that linkup would last about two hours, and the crew would not enter Starship, Engadget reported². NASA said the two docking approaches would show how Orion works with two different commercial lander designs on one flight².

Space.com said NASA would like to fly both landers on Artemis III but it is unclear if both will be ready, and the same uncertainty applies to which spacecraft would land crew on Artemis IV¹. Engadget noted NASA Watch reported last month that Isaacman said Artemis III was three months behind schedule, with a best-case summer 2027 launch².

What remains unknown is the exact launch date, whether both commercial landers will fly on Artemis III, and which vehicle would later carry astronauts to the lunar surface^1,2.