Put it in pencil: NASA's Artemis III mission will launch no earlier than late 2027
NASA's Artemis III mission is now scheduled to launch no earlier than late 2027, according to agency administrator Jared Isaacman. The mission will no longer land on the Moon but will instead test docking procedures with lunar landers in Earth orbit. This change allows for safer, more controlled evaluations of SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon systems before a lunar landing attempt in 2028.
- ▪SpaceX and Blue Origin have informed NASA that their lunar landers will be ready for the Artemis III mission in late 2027.
- ▪Artemis III will conduct rendezvous and docking tests in Earth orbit rather than landing on the Moon, similar to the Apollo 9 mission.
- ▪The revised plan allows NASA to potentially save an SLS upper stage for a future lunar mission and aims to maintain a cadence of at least one Artemis launch per year.
- ▪NASA is considering testing one or both landers in orbit, depending on readiness and mission configuration.
- ▪The original Artemis III goal of landing at the Moon’s south pole has been postponed due to the complexity of first-time docking so far from Earth.
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Meeting NASA’s needs Put it in pencil: NASA’s Artemis III mission will launch no earlier than late 2027 SpaceX and Blue Origin tell NASA their lunar landers will be ready for Artemis III in late 2027. Stephen Clark – Apr 27, 2026 8:14 pm | 166 This photo from 2023 shows a ground test of the docking mechanism for Starship, derived from the system used on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX This photo from 2023 shows a ground test of the docking mechanism for Starship, derived from the system used on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
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