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

NASA abandons 2027 Artemis III the moon landing in favor of the 2028 mission

By Claire Cameron edited by Lee Billings

NASA will not send astronauts to the Moon in 2027, space agency administrator Jared Isaacman announced Friday. Instead, the agency will reorganize its projects Artemis III mission to test in-orbit capabilities such as using astronauts’ spacesuits in microgravity and rendezvousing with at least one of the spacecraft NASA hopes to use as a lunar lander.

NASA will then attempt to perform two crewed moon landings in 2028 as part of Artemis IV And Artemis V. The move represents a major change in timeline for the agency, which has been pushing for years to Artemis III the mission that will land astronauts on the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.

Announcement comes after next NASA project Artemis II The mission encountered further problems with its rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), last week. As a result, NASA had to scrap a launch planned for March, which was already behind its original schedule. The SLS, which now has helium flow issues, previously encountered hydrogen leaks and other problems that caused its launch window to slip earlier this year. Similar problems had led to months of delays for the rocket’s first launch on the uncrewed Artemis I mission. The next launch window for Artemis II opens in early April.

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At a news conference Friday, Isaacman said NASA is confident that increasing the cadence of SLS launches to about once every 10 months will result in less risk and more mission success.

“I’m excited because I think we have a way here to get the job done in the time frame that we have targeted right 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 of Artemis I and future missions will be more than three years.

“There’s simply a right way and a wrong way to do it,” Isaacman said. “A launch every three years and… massive changes in vehicle configuration are not a recipe for success.”

Editor’s Note (02/27/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.

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