NASA scraps 2027 Artemis III lunar landing in favor of 2028 mission

NASA scraps 2027 Artemis III lunar landing in favor of the 2028 mission

By Claire Cameron edited by Lee Billings

NASA will not land astronauts on the moon in 2027, space agency administrator Jared Isaacman announced Friday. Instead, the agency will change the planned Artemis III missions to test capabilities in orbit such as using the astronauts’ spacesuits in microgravity and rendezvous with at least one of the spacecraft that NASA hopes to use as a lunar lander.

NASA will then attempt two manned lunar landings in 2028 as part of Artemis IV and Artemis V. The decision represents a major timetable shift for the agency, which has been pushing for years Artemis III the mission that will land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than half a century.

The announcement comes after NASA’s upcoming Artemis II the mission encountered several problems with its rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), last week. As a result, NASA has had to scrap a Mars launch target, which already represented a delay from the original timeline. The SLS, which now has problems with helium flow, had already encountered hydrogen leaks and other problems that had caused the launch window to slip earlier this year — and similar issues had caused months of delays for the rocket’s first launch in the unmanned Artemis I mission. The next launch window for Artemis II opens at the beginning of April.

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At a news conference Friday, Isaacman said NASA was convinced that increasing the cadence of SLS launches to once every 10 months or so would result in less risk and greater mission success.

“I’m excited because I think we have a path here to actually get the job done in the time frames that we’ve targeted now,” Isaacman said. NASA needs to rebuild its “core competencies,” he said, adding that the agency will work to standardize SLS production so that the time between launches can be reduced as much as possible. Currently, the period between the last SLS launch for Artemis I and the upcoming missions will be more than three years.

“It’s just a straight-up crazy way to do this,” Isaacman said. “Launching every three years and … massive changes in the configuration of the vehicle is not a recipe for success.”

Editor’s Note (2/27/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.

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