NASA accelerates Artemis programme ahead of planned 2028 Moon landing

The US space agency says significant challenges still remain as it works towards returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface.
NASA is speeding up preparations for Artemis III and IV, with lunar lander docking tests planned for summer 2027 ahead of a targeted crewed Moon landing in 2028.

The agency says it has halved the assembly and integration schedule for its Artemis III Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and reduced the time needed to resolve certain hardware issues by up to 85%.

The push comes amid growing competition with China, who is also pursuing their own lunar exploration agenda.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman likens the situation to the Apollo-era space race, when the United States and Soviet Union competed to reach the lunar surface in the 1960s.

“We find ourselves at a similar moment under very different circumstances, with perhaps even more at stake,” Isaacman said during a 23 October briefing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Following the successful Artemis II mission in April 2026, the agency says Artemis III is scheduled to launch in summer 2027.

While Artemis II carried astronauts around the Moon, Artemis III will keep its four-person crew within Earth’s orbit, where they will practise docking NASA’s Orion spacecraft with lunar landers in preparation for future missions to the lunar surface.

The approximately 14-day mission will involve three separate rocket launches: one to send the astronauts into orbit aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft; another to launch Blue Origin’s Blue Moon test lander; and a third to launch SpaceX’s Starship lander, both of which are designed to transport astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.

“We’re launching three of the most powerful rockets in the world, and undertaking what is likely the most complicated launch campaign ever undertaken,” says Artemis programme manager Jeremy Parsons.

Once in Earth orbit, Orion will meet and dock with Blue Moon, allowing astronauts to enter the lander and test its systems. Orion will then separate from Blue Moon before carrying out a second docking test with Starship, during which astronauts will remain onboard Orion.

By conducting these tests, NASA hopes to identify potential problems before astronauts attempt similar operations during Artemis IV.

These missions help to serve NASA’s broader goal of establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon.

“This mountain of effort is our opportunity to potentially spark a lunar economy, to unleash scientific discovery, to learn, to live and work beyond our home planet,” Isaacman says.

As preparations continue, NASA is also exploring ways to simplify the journey to the moon during Artemis IV and reduce the demands placed on lunar landers.

Under the earlier mission plan, Orion would meet the lander in an orbit relatively far from the Moon, requiring the lander to make a more demanding journey between that orbit and the lunar surface. NASA is now exploring alternatives that would bring Orion closer to the Moon, potentially reducing the propulsion demands placed on the landers.

“That may not sound like a big deal, but when you’re talking about every study we have ever done since 2014, something that came out inevitably was [that] the closer we can get Orion to the moon, the more design margin we have, the more risk reduction, the more mission availability and the more overall options become available to us,” says Parsons.

Despite the reported improvements, NASA still faces scheduling difficulties. Artemis III is approximately 90 days behind the agency’s internal planning schedule, with supply-chain delays among the many problems slowing preparations.

“There are serious engineering challenges ahead,” Isaacman says. “No amount of my enthusiasm or schedule pressure changes the laws of physics. What we are undertaking is ambitious.”

Nevertheless, Isaacman expresses confidence that NASA’s workforce can overcome those challenges. “Just as the Apollo generation rose to the occasion, so too will the young engineers that are working late at night right now on Orion,” he says.

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