This week, NASA announced that the 40-year-old Douglas will be one of the four crew members for Artemis III, a mission in low Earth orbit that will involve testing systems needed for lunar landings. It will come after this year’s Artemis II mission around the moon and precede the planned Artemis IV mission to the lunar surface.
The 2027 spaceflight will be the first for Douglas, who served as a backup crew member for Artemis II, NASA said. He will serve as a mission specialist along with fellow NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. The crew also includes pilot Luca Parmitano, a European Space Agency astronaut, and commander Randy Bresnik of NASA.
Douglas, who grew up in Virginia, received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Coast Guard Academy in 2008, according to his NASA biography. He then earned three master’s degrees and a doctorate from other institutions.
The Coast Guard Academy congratulated Douglas on his selection for the Artemis III mission on social media Tuesday. Only a handful of academy graduates have become astronauts, and Douglas had dreamed of it since he was a child, according to Military.com.
As a member of the Coast Guard, Douglas led drug enforcement operations, migrant interdictions and humanitarian relief efforts and also provided technical support for maritime casualty response, according to his NASA bio. Following active duty, he worked at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, where he played a role in space exploration, planetary defense and underwater robotics missions and more.
After NASA selected him as an Artemis II backup crew member, Douglas visited Eaton Aerospace Group’s Bethel campus and thanked employees who had built sensors for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket.
“All of the stuff that you’ve done, help with the engineering systems and components, that’s important to keep us alive, right? We need to come back,” Douglas said at the time.
He said it was important for him to build connections with the people contributing to NASA missions.
“I love engineering. I love math. I love science. I love hardware — but I also really love people,” he said. “For me growing up and being a military kid, moving around, and being around people that connection is very important to me. So when we’re able to do that with these folks here and we remind them that they’re part of the team, they’re part of the crew. With every bolt, everything… We appreciate that.”
Gov. Ned Lamont’s office has said that dozens of Connecticut companies have contributed to the Artemis program.
Includes prior reporting by Staff Writer Michael Gagne.