LORIENT, France (AP) — French league club Lorient hired Alexandre Dujeux as its new coach on Tuesday to replace Olivier Pantaloni.
Lorient said in a statement that Dujeux signed for the next two seasons, plus an optional additional year.
Dujeux was in charge of Angers from March 2023, leading the club back to Ligue 1 at the end of the 2023-24 season.
A former defender, Dujeux played more than 400 professional matches in France for Red Star, Chateauroux, Le Havre, Troyes, Ajaccio, and Tours. He then managed 127 matches at Angers.
“We want to play effective and ambitious football, driven by a strong collective identity,” Dujeux said.
Lorient had announced earlier this season that Pantaloni had declined a contract extension. Appointed in 2024 following relegation, Pantaloni immediately helped Lorient back to the top tier. Lorient finished 10th in Ligue 1 last season, and Angers 13th.
Black Knight Football Club group became Lorient's sole shareholder in January. The Black Knight consortium fronted by American businessman Bill Foley, which owns the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL, had acquired a minority ownership interest in Lorient in January 2023 as part of its multi-club ownership strategy.
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FILE - Angers' head coach Alexandre Dujeux gives instructions from the side line during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Angers at Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — NASA on Tuesday revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission, the next step in the space agency's plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.
The announcement came two months after Artemis II's record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the distance record of Apollo 13.
NASA's Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano won't fly to the moon or land on the surface. Instead, they’ll orbit Earth while practicing docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers.
“To the Artemis III crew, we wish you Godspeed on the journey ahead,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are racing to deliver the lunar landers. The two-week demo is targeted for 2027. Blue Origin suffered a recent setback when its massive rocket exploded during an engine-firing test on the launch pad in Florida, shaking nearby homes and illuminating the sky with an orange fireball.
NASA's Jeremy Parsons said the setback is a learning opportunity and that the space agency is confident Blue Origin's rocket will be ready in time.
NASA's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon's surface for the first time since the 1970s. A recent revamp of the program announced by Isaacman aims to fast-track it similarly to the Apollo era, adding the upcoming spaceflight around Earth before eyeing a lunar landing in 2028.
“We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space,” said Bresnik, Artemis III commander.
Added Douglas, mission specialist: “My brain — it is going a mile a minute right now. But my heart, it is so warm. It is so full."
In May, NASA awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four companies, including Blue Origin, to build landers, rovers and drones for a future moon base. Isaacman said the goal of the moon base is to lay the foundation for a Mars expedition.
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This undated photo provided by NASA Tuesday, June 9, 2026, shows the Artemis III crew including, from left, Andre Douglas, Luca Parmitano, Randy Bresnik and Frank Rubio, posing for an official portrait. (Bill Stafford/NASA via AP)
FILE - In this image provided by NASA, The Artemis II crew captured this view of an Earthset on April 6, 2026, as they flew around the Moon. (NASA via AP, File)
