NASA announces sweeping overhaul of Artemis return to moon, targeting a 2028 landing and a 2027 in-orbit docking flight
NASA announced a radical overhaul to its Artemis program, saying the agency’s plan to return astronauts to the Moon by 2028 would not be feasible without an additional flight in 2027.
The new plan, presented by the administrator of NASA Jared Isaacman during a press conference Friday, February 27, includes annual crewed launches and the scrapping of the Boeing-developed exploration upper stage.
This problem; plus a string of hydrogen leaks to this rocket and his predecessor; and other considerations regarding the readiness of core mission technologies, all contributed to NASA’s change of plan. According to Isaacman, this adjustment will replenish the workforce of NASA officials and restore basic capabilities before a lunar landing attempt.
“Right now, our program basically boils down to Apollo 8, which will then go directly to the Moon,” Isaacman said at the news conference. “That’s not a path to success.”
What is changing?
NASA announced several major changes to the Artemis program schedule, including adding a new milestone between next Artemis II missionwhich will send astronauts on a round trip around the Moon, and a future mission to land humans on the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years.
NASA originally planned to land a team of astronauts on the Moon in the next phase of the Artemis mission, dubbed Artemis III. The crewed moon landing was initially planned for 2026, but has faced numerous 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 recently revamped Artemis III mission will instead test the Orion crew capsule’s ability to dock with an orbiting lunar lander.
Scheduled for launch in mid-2027, the new Artemis III mission would launch a crew into low Earth orbit aboard NASA’s SLS rocket, then dock the Orion capsule with a lander made by 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 the lunar lander in low Earth orbit – before the Apollo 11 mission finally landed humans on the moon.
Why is NASA doing this?
This additional step will considerably reduce the risks of a moon landing, according to Ars Technicaallowing the NASA team to test the handling of the lunar lander, the rendezvous and docking process of the two spacecraft, communications, spacesuit performance and much more.
Despite these additional measures, NASA hopes to maintain a brisk pace that will allow American astronauts to return to the Moon before any other spacefaring nation (especially China) have the chance.
“If you want a piece of history, look at the time when Apollo 7 landed to the launch of Apollo 8, you’re about two months apart. We need to start getting back to basics and moving in that direction,” Isaacman said. “We will aim to get our launches within a year. Specifically, potentially up to ten months.”
After Artemis IV returns to the Moon, NASA intends to continue annual lunar rocket launches for the near future, Isaacman added.
