{"id":43287,"date":"2026-04-29T01:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/put-it-in-pencil-nasas-artemis-iii-mission-will-launch-no-earlier-than-late-2027\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T01:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:25:19","slug":"put-it-in-pencil-nasas-artemis-iii-mission-will-launch-no-earlier-than-late-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/put-it-in-pencil-nasas-artemis-iii-mission-will-launch-no-earlier-than-late-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"Put it in pencil: NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission will launch no earlier than late 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told lawmakers on Monday that SpaceX and Blue Origin, the agency\u2019s two lunar lander contractors, say they could have their spacecraft ready for the next Artemis mission in Earth orbit in late 2027, somewhat later than NASA\u2019s previous schedule.<\/p>\n

This mission, Artemis III, will not fly to the Moon. Instead, NASA will launch an Orion capsule with a team of astronauts to rendezvous and potentially dock with one or both landers in Earth orbit. The details of the Artemis III flight plan remain under review, with key questions about the orbit\u2019s altitude and the configuration of the Space Launch System rocket still unanswered.<\/p>\n

A mission to low-Earth orbit, just a few hundred miles in altitude, may not require NASA to use up an SLS upper stage that is already built and in storage, saving the unit for the following Artemis mission to attempt a landing on the Moon. A launch into a higher orbit would require the upper stage, but it would allow NASA to perform tests in an environment more similar to the Moon. NASA is buying a new commercial upper stage, the Centaur V from United Launch Alliance, to pair with the SLS rocket after flying the last of the rocket\u2019s existing upper stages.<\/p>\n

Also in question is which of the landers\u2014SpaceX\u2019s Starship or Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon\u2014Artemis III will attempt to link to in space, or if NASA will try to incorporate both landers into the flight plan, assuming they are ready. Two months ago, Isaacman announced Artemis III would no longer land at the Moon\u2019s south pole. The original Artemis III mission profile would have tried to accomplish too much. With that plan, the first time humans docked with and boarded a Starship or Blue Moon spacecraft would have been near the Moon, a quarter-million miles and several days away from Earth.<\/p>\n

Instead, Artemis III will be a mission akin to Apollo 9, which tested the Apollo lunar lander in Earth orbit four months before Apollo 11\u2019s historic landing at the Sea of Tranquility with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. If something goes wrong in Earth orbit, the Artemis III astronauts will be minutes or hours from home, not days.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman testifies during a House budget hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on April 27, 2026, in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Heather Diehl\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

18 months away?<\/h2>\n

All of the ambition wrapped up in NASA\u2019s original plan for Artemis III also meant a long multiyear gap before the next launch of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft after the nearly flawless flight of the Artemis II mission earlier this month. The agency wants to fly Artemis missions at least once per year. When NASA revealed the revised Artemis III flight plan in February, officials suggested it might launch as soon as mid-2027, followed by up to two Artemis missions to the lunar surface in 2028, before China puts a crew on the Moon and before the end of President Donald Trump\u2019s term in office.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s looking more like late 2027, at the earliest, for Artemis III.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve received responses from both vendors, both SpaceX and Blue Origin, to meet our needs for a late 2027 rendezvous, docking, and test of the interoperability of both landers in advance of a landing attempt in 2028,\u201d Isaacman said Monday.<\/p>\n

Both companies have multibillion-dollar contracts to develop and deliver human-rated landers to NASA for use on Artemis missions. Both vehicles need to be refueled in space in order to fly to the Moon. This added complexity is not required for an Earth orbit mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taxpayers are making a very big investment to both SpaceX and Blue Origin\u2019s Human Landing System (HLS) capability,\u201d Isaacman said in a hearing before the subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee responsible for NASA\u2019s budget. \u201cI would also appreciate that both those companies are investing well in excess of that, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starship and Blue Moon are each significantly larger than the Apollo lunar lander and could eventually be refueled at the Moon for multiple trips between the lunar surface and crew and cargo freighters in orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that capability that allows us not just to get back to the Moon, but really build the Moon base, put lots of mass, sufficiently and affordably, on the surface, not to mention every other application that comes from a rocket that you don\u2019t have to throw away,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cSo we\u2019re very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are steep challenges in getting Starship and Blue Moon ready for a human spaceflight mission. On Apollo 9, two astronauts took the lunar module for a test run, separating from the command module with the mission\u2019s third crew member for more than six hours before reconnecting in low-Earth orbit. For a similar test on Artemis III, Starship or Blue Moon would require an advanced, independent life support system, human-rated engines, a cockpit and flight controls, and a docking mechanism. SpaceX and Blue Origin have released few details of where those systems are in development and production.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This artist\u2019s rendering shows NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft docked with SpaceX\u2019s Starship lunar lander near the Moon.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA\/SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s possible NASA could go for a less ambitious Artemis III mission, with a rendezvous and docking but no independent crewed flight of the lunar lander. NASA\u2019s leaders must decide on these options in the coming months, and their thinking will be informed by how quickly and successfully SpaceX moves forward with flying the next-generation Starship Version 3 rocket and Blue Origin\u2019s planned uncrewed landing near the Moon\u2019s south pole with the Blue Moon cargo lander.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

NASA would also like to fly at least one of Axiom\u2019s commercial spacesuits on Artemis III to give astronauts a chance to try it out in space before they need it for walking on the Moon. The suits are undergoing tests on the ground and in NASA\u2019s spacewalk training pool in Houston. Isaacman said Monday that NASA could also send an Axiom suit to the International Space Station for testing by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s SLS and Orion, the two pieces of the Artemis architecture that performed so well on Artemis II.<\/p>\n

Technicians at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will soon install the heat shield onto the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III. This heat shield has a modified design after engineers discovered unexpected erosion of the Artemis I heat shield on a test flight in 2022. Then, sometime this summer, ground teams at Kennedy will connect the Orion crew module to the ship\u2019s service module before preparing the spacecraft for fueling. NASA and its contractors will also study and resolve a handful of issues encountered on Artemis II, including a helium leak in the service module propulsion system and problems dumping urine overboard.<\/p>\n

The core stage for the Artemis III mission\u2019s SLS rocket arrived at Kennedy on Monday, pulling up to dock just a couple of hours before Isaacman\u2019s testimony before Congress. It sailed aboard a NASA barge from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, where teams manufactured and integrated the core stage\u2019s propellant tanks. Once inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy, the stage will be prepared to receive its engine section with four RS-25 main engines.<\/p>\n

That will set the stage for NASA\u2019s go-ahead to begin stacking the SLS rocket from Artemis III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told lawmakers on Monday that SpaceX and Blue Origin, the agency\u2019s two lunar lander contractors, say they could have their spacecraft ready for the next Artemis mission in Earth orbit in late 2027, somewhat later than NASA\u2019s previous schedule. This mission, Artemis III, will not fly to the Moon. Instead, NASA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}