France, June 27 -- Nasa's Artemis III mission follows the successful Artemis II flight completed in April - the farthest humans have travelled from the Earth.

The crew will undertake a series of challenging tests in Low Earth Orbit in 2027, in preparation for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole, in 2028.

At the helm will be Italy's Luca Parmitano, heading up a four-member crew expected to remain in space for around two weeks.

Selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as an astronaut in 2009, Parmitano has a master's degree in experimental flight test engineering from the Institut Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace in Toulouse. He has logged more than 2,000 flight hours across 40 types of aircr...