NASA has announced a extensive overhaul to the Artemis program, saying the agency’s plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2028 would not be achievable without an additional flight in 2027.
The new plan, outlined by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman at a press conference Friday (Feb. 27), include annual crewed launches and the scrapping of the Boeing-developed Exploration Upper Stage.
This problem; plus a string with hydrogen leaks to this rocket and its predecessor; and other considerations about the readiness of core mission technologies have all contributed to NASA’s changed plan. According to Isaacman, the adjustment will rebuild NASA’s civil service workforce and restore core capabilities before a lunar landing is attempted.
“Right now our program is essentially set up with Apollo 8 going straight to the moon,” Isaacman said at the news conference. “There is not one path to success.”
What is changing?
NASA announced several major changes to the Artemis program timeline, most notably adding a new stage between upcoming Artemis II missionwhich will send astronauts on a trip around the moon, and a future mission to land humans on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.
Originally, NASA planned to land a team of astronauts on the moon during the next phase of the Artemis mission, called Artemis III. The manned lunar landing was originally planned for 2026, but has been subject to many delays, recently pushed back to 2028 at the earliest.
NASA still hopes to land humans on the moon in early 2028, officials said at the briefing, but that mission will now be called Artemis IV. It will also be followed by another crewed landing attempt in late 2028 called Artemis V. Meanwhile, the newly rebuilt Artemis III mission will instead test the Orion crew capsule’s ability to dock with a lunar lander in orbit.
Set to launch in mid-2027, the new Artemis III mission will launch a crew into low-Earth orbit aboard NASA’s SLS rocket, then dock the Orion capsule with a lander manufactured by either SpaceX or Blue Origin, two private partners working with NASA.
Adding this extra step to the Artemis campaign puts it more in line with the progression of the Apollo missions — the ten-day Apollo 9 mission tested a docking between the team’s command module and lunar lander in low Earth orbit — before the Apollo 11 mission finally landed humans on the moon.
Why is NASA doing this?
This extra step will significantly reduce the risk of a lunar landing, according to Ars Technicaallowing the NASA team to test the handling of the lunar lander, the process of meeting and docking the two spacecraft, communications, space suit performance and more.
Despite the extra steps, NASA hopes to maintain a high pace that will still put American astronauts back on the moon before other spacefaring nations (especially China) have the chance to.
“If you want some history, look at the time when Apollo 7 splashed down to when Apollo 8 launched, that’s about two months apart. We need to start getting back to basics and moving in this direction,” Isaacman said. “We’re going to try to get our launches within a year. Specifically down to potentially ten months.”
After Artemis IV returns to the moon, NASA intends to continue annual lunar rocket launches for the foreseeable future, Isaacman added.
