NASA Details Artemis III and IV Plans for Moon Missions

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other agency leaders shared updates on Oct. 23 about accelerating the Artemis program, with the goal of returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2028.

Artemis III Mission

Artemis III will send four astronauts to low Earth orbit in 2027 aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, launched on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, for a planned 14-day mission. The mission will test rendezvous, docking, and operations between Orion and lunar lander test vehicles from SpaceX and Blue Origin.

The sequence will begin with Blue Origin launching a Blue Moon lander test article into Earth orbit. SLS will then launch Orion and its crew to dock with the Blue Moon lander test article. Afterward, SpaceX will launch a Version 3 Starship lander test article while Orion undocks from Blue Moon and docks with Starship.

Artemis IV Mission

For Artemis IV in 2028, astronauts will launch aboard Orion on the SLS rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop lunar landers to carry astronauts to the Moon’s surface. Both companies are targeting to be able to support a crewed lunar landing in 2028.

SpaceX’s Starship will refuel in Earth orbit, rendezvous with Orion, and then carry the spacecraft toward the Moon. Blue Origin’s approach involves transfer stages in Earth orbit to push its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander toward the Moon, where it will meet Orion in a closer lunar orbit before descending to the surface.

NASA is pursuing two upper-stage options for the SLS rocket: its current stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage; and a stretched version of ULA’s Centaur V which can carry more propellant.

Spacesuits and Hardware

NASA announced plans with spacesuit provider Axiom Space to develop a second, lighter suit design called the “Sortie suit” to enable the first moonwalks. The Sortie suit will not replace Axiom’s primary suit, which will be used for longer, more demanding missions in the future. The Sortie suit is roughly half the weight of the larger suit.

Hardware for Artemis III is on track, with processing timelines sharply reduced by about half. NASA also redesigned, built, and tested a critical fuel-line component in-house in five months, at roughly a tenth of the cost of an earlier outside-vendor estimate.

Why it matters

The updates show NASA’s path to crewed lunar landings in 2028 and its effort to build an enduring human presence on the Moon as a foundation for the first crewed mission to Mars.

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Sources

• nasa.gov: NASA Shares Plans to Accelerate Artemis, Return to Moon - NASA

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