WORLDTECHNASA Lays Out Artemis Timeline With 2027 Test Flight and 2028 Moon Landing
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File:NASA Welcomes Senegal as Artemis Accords Signatory.webm / NASA Headquarters / This image or video was catalogued by NASA Headquarters of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: NASA Welcomes Senegal as Artemis Accords Signatory . / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Welcomes_Senegal_as_Artemis_Accords_Signatory.webmSource pageNASA has published fresh details on its effort to put Americans back on the lunar surface, with agency leadership keeping an Artemis III test flight in 2027 and an Artemis IV Moon landing in 2028 in view. The update follows priorities the agency set out at Ignition earlier this year.
Schedule for the Artemis flights
Agency leadership reported progress on acceleration plans that NASA had announced earlier for Artemis. The Artemis III test flight is aimed at 2027, while the Artemis IV mission is scheduled to land on the Moon in 2028.
Artemis III is to send four astronauts into low Earth orbit, the band of space closest to Earth where most satellites fly, next year. The crew will test how the Orion spacecraft and lunar lander test vehicles from SpaceX and Blue Origin approach, dock and operate together. Hardware for the mission is on track, with processing timelines cut by about half.
Lander partners and upper-stage options
NASA is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin on lunar landers that will carry astronauts down to the Moon's surface. Both companies have reworked their approaches to simplify their missions and make them more efficient and flexible than earlier designs, and both are targeting a crewed lunar landing in 2028.
For Artemis IV, the agency is keeping two upper-stage options open for the SLS rocket: the interim cryogenic propulsion stage it currently uses, and a stretched version of ULA's Centaur V that can carry more propellant. NASA says pursuing both keeps its choices flexible and avoids dependence on a single point of failure.
In-house fuel-line work and lighter spacesuit
NASA redesigned, built and tested a critical fuel-line component in-house within five months, at roughly a tenth of an earlier outside-vendor estimate.
The agency has also announced plans with spacesuit provider Axiom Space for a second, lighter suit called the Sortie suit, intended to enable the first moonwalks. It weighs roughly half as much as the larger suit, which will remain Axiom's primary suit for longer and more demanding future missions.
Open questions
- Will the lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin meet the 2028 crewed landing target?
- Which upper-stage option will NASA ultimately fly on the SLS rocket for Artemis IV?