NASA is targeting a summer 2027 launch for Artemis III, a crewed test flight that will stay in low Earth orbit. Administrator Jared Isaacman presented the schedule at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 23, 2026. Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons joined him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency still aims to return American astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028. That landing now belongs to Artemis IV, which NASA describes as the first Artemis mission to reach the surface. Artemis III itself will not land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaacman said the work ahead leads to “a year-end tanking test and a summer 2027 Artemis 3 launch.” He credited the Kennedy workforce with cutting the assembly and integration schedule in half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Artemis III will carry NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, plus European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. They will test rendezvous and docking between Orion and test versions of the landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parsons said the mission is planned for 14 days and can stretch to 17 if weather delays a launch. “Every day of this mission is built around specific tests that reduce risk,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crew has already practiced water recovery with U.S. Navy helicopter squadrons in San Diego on September 24. On August 10, the four astronauts tasted nearly 200 menu items at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flight brings NASA, SpaceX and Blue Origin together on the same launch plan. Parsons called it “likely the most complicated launch campaign ever undertaken,” with three of the most powerful rockets in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blue Origin opens the sequence by launching its Blue Moon test lander, Parsons explained. NASA wants the Space Launch System already on the pad after a wet dress rehearsal, ready to follow quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaacman said the mission will test how the rockets, Orion and both landers work together before the next flight. According to NASA’s lander update<\/a>, neither company has been assigned to a specific lunar landing yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of the Artemis III rocket is already at Kennedy. On September 30, engineers in the Vehicle Assembly Building finished stacking the twin solid rocket boosters, NASA reported in a status update<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boosters supply more than 75 percent of the rocket’s thrust at liftoff. All four RS-25 engines are installed on the core stage. It will join the boosters in a short stack for the tanking test at Launch Pad 39B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parsons said stacking ended five months after the crew of NASA’s 10-day Artemis II flight around the Moon<\/a> came home. His teams cut the time needed to prepare the booster segments in half, and stacking operations took 20 percent less time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The core stage is 220 feet (67 meters) long, and two cranes lifted it to vertical inside the building. Parsons called it “the absolute coolest lift I’ve ever seen in my life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the 2028 landing, astronauts will launch on SLS and Orion from Kennedy. Each lander will take two crew members to the surface while two stay aboard Orion, according to NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orion and the landers will no longer meet in the near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon. Each provider will use its own orbit, and both companies must first fly an uncrewed demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SpaceX will fill a depot Starship in low Earth orbit with a series of tanker flights. Its lander will then push Orion toward the Moon. Blue Origin will use three transfer stages to send its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander into an elliptical polar orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first surface missions plan two moonwalks of about two hours each, in Axiom Space suits. Robotic rovers and lunar terrain vehicles for the South Pole<\/a> are being prepared in parallel. China, meanwhile, is pursuing its own plans for a lunar base<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA has not said which company will carry the first crew down. The agency will choose based on lander readiness, and a second crewed landing opportunity would follow, its update says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaacman said NASA is keeping options open for both partners. “We have no intention of surrendering a viable path to the surface before the data and schedule compels us to do so,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA’s readiness document puts delivery of the first flight unit of its new Sortie spacesuit in the first half of 2028. The written update only says Artemis III launches next year. The summer target came from the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBoosters stacked by September 30<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Two landers aim for 2028<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
No lander picked for 2028<\/h2>\n\n\n\n