BERLIN—The European Space Agency (ESA) sees Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s role in the Artemis III mission next year as merely a step along the way to its larger goal of getting a European to the lunar surface during follow-on missions.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said having Parmitano pilot the mission is “a great honor,” but not the end of the story. ESA last year named three astronauts who were due to eventually travel to the lunar gateway as part of the Artemis program, before NASA this year decided to scrap the outpost to fly directly to the Moon’s surface.

“We have to really start again to see what we can achieve in terms of astronaut flights, especially to the lunar surface,” Aschbacher told reporters at the ILA Berlin air show. “This is, of course, my goal.”

Aschbacher, who just returned from Houston where he visited NASA for the Artemis III announcement, said “constructive meetings” were underway but nothing is settled yet. “We hope that before the end of the year we get some more clarity,” he said, noting that ESA members planned an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the path forward for space exploration.