> “I have a candidate for you for flying to the moon,” the French president told U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the two met at NASA headquarters Wednesday, according to a video posted on social media.

> The contender standing next to him was Thomas Pesquet, a 44-year-old Frenchman first selected as a European Space Agency astronaut in 2009, who has since been to the International Space Station twice.

> The U.S. government is aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon around 2025 under the third stage of its Artemis program.

> The third Artemis mission, which won’t happen until 2025 at the earliest, will then aim to transport humans back to the lunar surface.

> “He wants to go to Artemis 3,” Macron said of Pesquet in the video posted to his personal Twitter account, putting his compatriot forward as a willing candidate.

> However, the standing deal was not expected to include a spot on Artemis 3 and, regardless, the ESA’s management, not national leaders, usually decides which of the serving astronauts are put forward for international missions.

> [NASA] has so far not publicly selected who from its recently enlarged astronaut core would be selected for any future moon mission. However, Pesquet is keen to fly and previously told POLITICO he’d like to see Europe embark on its own human spaceflight program.

That's exciting. I know a Canadian is slated to go on the Artemis 2 flyby, but they haven't announced anything for the other missions yet. I believe Artemis 3 and 4 will each only carry 2 astronauts down to the surface, so it's pretty limited. I can't imagine the government agreeing to put anyone other than 2 Americans on A3, but there's a chance for an international crewmate on A4.

I really hope they can expand the crew sizes eventually. The planned lander is certainly large enough to accommodate a whole bunch of people, but Orion is too small and is limited to only 4 at a time. But maybe in time they'll upgrade to a bigger capsule. Would be fantastic to land like a dozen people all at once from multiple Artemis Accords partners.