Col. Bob "Farmer" Hines has quietly landed one of the most interesting jobs in NASA's current lineup. As the only backup to the Artemis III crew, he is training to cover every seat on the four-person flight, a role that puts him a heartbeat away from flying the mission himself and possibly in a strong position for a future moonwalk. Spaceflight watchers and local outlets have already started whispering that the combination of his test-pilot chops and long-duration space experience could make him a front-runner for a lunar-surface slot if assignments shuffle for Artemis IV.
NASA rolled out the Artemis III prime crew at a June 9 event and named Hines as the single backup who will train alongside Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, according to NASA. The agency describes Artemis III as a complex low-Earth-orbit test in 2027 that will prove out rendezvous and docking with commercial lunar landers before anyone aims boots at the surface again. The same release highlights a multi-launch campaign and end-to-end checks of hardware and software across the Orion capsule, the Space Launch System rocket, and lunar lander pathfinders from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Test-pilot pedigree with combat time to match
Hines arrives at this role with a logbook that reads like a recruiting poster. The U.S. Air Force reports that he has more than 4,000 flight hours in roughly 50 different aircraft and has flown about 76 combat missions in the F-15E and other jets, according to the U.S. Air Force. After his selection as the Artemis III backup, Hines called the assignment "incredibly humbling" and noted that the alternate-crew spot demands the flexibility to slot into multiple positions. He holds an aerospace engineering degree from Boston University and later worked as a research pilot at NASA's Johnson Space Center before being chosen as an astronaut in 2017.
One backup, all the seats
As the designated Artemis III backup, Hines will train to cover every crewmember role and spacecraft system on the mission, a breadth of preparation laid out in his official biography, according to NASA. That cross-training is expected to make him fluent in command, piloting and mission-specialist duties, something program insiders say never hurts when managers later assemble lunar-surface teams. At the same time, officials keep pointing out that the final call on who walks on the Moon will hinge on vehicle readiness and program timing, not just who looks best on paper.
Artemis III as the dress rehearsal
Artemis III has been reshaped into a low-Earth-orbit mission designed to validate docking and integrated operations with commercial landers, a shift Space.com reports is meant to dial down risk before a planned crewed lunar landing on Artemis IV, now targeted for 2028. The flight will rehearse the choreography of multiple launches and dockings, testing interfaces between Orion and pathfinder landers from both SpaceX and Blue Origin. Analysts quoted in that coverage note that how smoothly those tests go will shape which lander, and which crew, are truly ready for a surface mission two years later.
Local buzz over a "prime spot"
Closer to home, the Orlando Sentinel has already pegged Hines as being in a "prime spot" for a future moon-landing assignment, even as it notes that NASA has not locked in any Artemis IV landing crews. That local reporting argues that being the lone, fully cross-trained backup naturally raises Hines' profile when it comes time to hand out surface slots. For now, officials are quick to temper the speculation, pointing to lander readiness, space suit availability and schedules as the real swing factors in those personnel decisions.
In the meantime, Hines will keep training alongside the Artemis III astronauts and stay on call in case the mission needs him to step in. Whether that path takes him all the way to a lunar stroll on Artemis IV will come down to a familiar mix in human spaceflight: timing, technical performance and the choices NASA makes as it tries to thread its 2027 to 2028 flight plan.
