My two cents on the recent announcement of the Artemis III crew and especially the reactions I have seen online.
First thing, I loved Artemis ii with all my heart they were fun and inspiring and very human and I think they touched people in a very deep level that went far beyond just the science of space travel. And I think Artemis iii (and future missions) might have trouble creating that same amount of strong public response (because Artemis II had just such a unique dynamic in their crew in combination with a unique mission profile) and that's absolutely ok. These are the new guys and we all have to warm up to them, even if we miss the fun we had with Artemis II and they have a special place in our hearts. But we should follow the example of the crew and be excited and supportive for whats next cause Artemis II didn't exist as a stand alone thing, it's served a specific purpose in a broader plan and the future will be build on top of it, Artemis II only existed cause their is a Artemis III, IV etc. to follow it up and thats the focus now.
Now for public response I have seen so far on social media. I think its safe to say that the biggest issue people have voiced very strongly is that there are no women on this crew and trust me, as a woman myself who was beyond happy about Christinas role and all the other female Nasa personnel on this mission, I get it.
Here is the big BUT though: many people treat this whole astronaut/space thing like their new tv show and get mad when their favorite charactere is not involved, like you could just pick whoever from the astronaut corps based on popularity and send them up. (Example: Jessica Meir, I get people like her but guys she is literally still in space, she can't possibly be on Artemis iii) Thats not how this works. Every astronaut might have gone through the same basic astronaut training but beyond that they each have their own skill set through studying in different stem fields and past work experiences. The people picked for the missions (Artemis or ISS) have to actually fit the mission profile. Artemis III revolves manly around testing rendevouz and docking procedures with the lunar landers, which is why 3/4 crew members have piloting experince through their militray career. Andre Douglas is the exception but he has already gone through the whole Artemis training and brings usefull experience with the orion system. Same thing will apply for Artemis IV. As a german I am rooting for Alexander Gerst to get picked, he is a geophysicist and would be ideal for an actually moon landing and as much as I would love to see him in space now, his specific skills and experiences would be pretty useless for Artemis III so makes 100% sence that he's not on it. Beyond all that, an astronaut has to be actually available for a mission (not be in space atm or retured recently) and a crew has to actually fit together character wise and lets be real, we don't actually know these people personally, I'm sure NASA has plenty psychologists to evaluate who works best with who.
Considering my rant and coming back to the women issue. There are currently 15 women in the NASA corps, if my reserach is correct 5 of those have any prior military piloting experience, Nicole Ayers, Anne McClain, Nicole Mann, Jasmin Moghbeli, Jessica Wittner. Ad to that Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA. Ayers and McClain returned from the ISS in august 2025, so their are not gonna go an another space flight so quickly. For the other 4 I don't know why they weren't picked, maybe it just wasn't the right fit this time around, maybe they are bound in a different job within the astronaut office atm (astronauts don't just sit on their ass wating to go to space, there are jobs and assignments for them on the ground within the agency). I don't know. Looking at those numbers, the chance for a woman to be picked was there but the simple probabilty just worked a little bit against it. I wouldn't accuse NASA of any malice behind that decision.
On a last note, people are not doing the public view a favor by demanding a woman to be on every mission just so that a woman is on a mission, thats EXACTLY what we don't want. We want a woman to be picked because she was viewed as equally or more qualified as her male colleagues, not because their was a box to be ticked. And if we want to live in a world where gender is not part of the desicion making we have to accept that sometimes it's the woman that is more qualified and sometimes it's the man. It just so happens to be now that the crew consists of four men, which are qualified and just as deserving to go on a mission as any other astronaut. I will be cheering for them and I hope many of you will to.
