NASA schedules Artemis III for 2027 as Moon landing rehearsal

NASA intends the 2027 Artemis III flight to serve as a major rehearsal for later crewed Moon landings, sending four astronauts aboard Orion to low Earth orbit to dock with test versions of SpaceX and Blue Origin landers. No Moon landing will occur during Artemis III. Before a crewed lunar descent in 2028, teams will use Artemis III to practice rendezvous and docking between Orion and commercial human landing systems, work done by teams on Earth and in space ahead of the 2028 crewed descent. Data from Artemis III and from future uncrewed Moon demonstrations should help NASA improve astronaut safety and prepare for successful crewed landings.

NASA revealed a schedule for readying SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers for Artemis at the International Astronautical Congress in Antalya, Turkey, setting Artemis III for the third quarter of 2027. NASA is working with two U.S. companies to develop spacecraft to carry astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface. During Artemis III, SpaceX and Blue Origin will each fly test articles of their developing landers, which launch on commercial rockets while astronauts ride Orion to low Earth orbit on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) from Kennedy.

The docking exercise helps NASA pick which vehicle flies astronauts to the lunar surface on Artemis IV, tentatively set for early 2028.

Steve Creech, Human Landing System Program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said each provider took a different approach to Artemis III while discussing how the companies’ goals complement uncrewed Moon demonstrations. Creech said the firms offered aggressive objectives to complement uncrewed Moon demonstrations, helping NASA gain understanding and confidence in the spacecraft and launch vehicles before a crewed landing. He added that the prototype designs will inform future development and keep maturing over the next year.

Blue Origin’s test lander is to launch first and can stay in space up to 30 days for checkouts before SLS and Orion lift off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, leading the launch order for orbital checkouts. Blue Origin is readying the 16-meter-tall Blue Moon Mark 2 lander with three BE-7 engines (rocket engines) and plans a complete test vehicle including a crew cabin, some life-support systems, and flight software. After docking with Orion, astronauts will be able to transfer to Blue Moon, get used to the vehicle in weightlessness, and test some of its systems, entering the lander to acclimate to weightlessness and check out its systems. Blue Origin must qualify the BE-7 engine and BT-7 maneuvering engines (small thrusters for in-space movement) plus communications systems, and must integrate the test lander with the New Glenn rocket.

SpaceX is building a lunar-landing version of Starship for NASA under the Artemis program. For Artemis III, SpaceX will use an existing Starship V3 upper stage modified with a docking system and nose covering, and the vehicle will have no crew cabin, so astronauts will not transfer to it from Orion. SpaceX must demonstrate orbital fuel transfer between Starships, and an estimate cited by UA.NEWS says refueling a Moon-bound lander could require up to 12 tanker launches.

SpaceX must also finish initial crew-cabin assembly, demonstrate the landing legs, begin testing the cabin airlock, and prepare its astronaut-training simulator. A tanker Starship should launch within months after Artemis III; SpaceX targets an uncrewed landing Starship for late Q3 or early Q4 2027, with an uncrewed Moon landing by the end of 2027.

Blue Origin plans to fly the smaller uncrewed Blue Moon MK1 to the Moon in the first quarter of 2027 under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The uncrewed Blue Moon MK2 demonstration vehicle will launch in the fourth quarter of 2027, with a Moon landing attempt planned for the first quarter of 2028. Before NASA lets either firm carry astronauts, both must show their vehicles can land safely on the Moon, operate on the surface, and return to lunar orbit.

Artemis II sent four astronauts around the Moon and home safely, and further analysis confirmed the Orion heat shield worked as expected. The mission served as a crewed lunar flyby and as a foundation for later surface missions. On Artemis II, Orion reached 39 times the speed of sound and faced external temperatures above 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius) at peak while the cabin stayed in the mid-70s Fahrenheit. NASA shortened Orion’s Artemis II reentry downrange distance between atmospheric entry and Pacific splashdown, drawing on Artemis I heat-shield findings and arc-jet testing at Ames Research Center.

Artemis II came within 192 feet (59 meters) of the entry interface target, and its splashdown occurred 0.59 miles (0.95 kilometers) from the predicted point off San Diego. The Artemis II heat shield had nine char-loss spots versus 103 on Artemis I, and the shorter downrange path cut cracking and char loss by a factor of 10.

After the Artemis I inquiry, NASA upgraded the Artemis III heat-shield design to give the Avcoat blocks (a heat-shield material) uniform and consistent permeability. The Artemis II heat shield contains 186 unique Avcoat blocks. Technicians examined it at Kennedy before sending it to Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama, where sample extraction and X-ray scans began in August. Technicians installed the Artemis III Orion crew-module heat shield at Kennedy in early July, mated the crew and service modules by late July, and powered up the craft for the first time.

NASA is pressing toward Artemis III as teams prepare Orion for the coming year’s low-Earth-orbit mission. NASA plans to launch SLS and Orion carrying astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. That crew is to rendezvous with human lander test articles from Blue Origin and SpaceX to demonstrate systems for future landings beginning with Artemis IV in 2028.