Artemis III
Artemis III is NASA's planned 14-day crewed flight in low Earth orbit, set for summer 2027, in which an Orion crew of four will dock with test versions of the Blue Origin and SpaceX lunar landers. It replaced the original plan to land on the Moon, and NASA now aims to put astronauts on the surface with Artemis IV in 2028.
What happened
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Watch this moment · 2:06
NASA briefs the new plan
At Kennedy Space Center, Administrator Jared Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Artemis programme manager Jeremy Parsons set out the Artemis III baseline and the Artemis IV options. Video 328 reports Isaacman as announcing that Artemis III will not land on the Moon.
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Watch this moment · 2:59
Core stage and boosters
NASA's live link from the Vehicle Assembly Building showed the Artemis III core stage being weighed, ahead of joining the two solid rocket boosters, which had finished stacking at the end of September. A tanking test of the core stage and boosters, without Orion on top, was planned for the following months.
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Watch this moment · 2:43
Blue Origin launches first
A New Glenn rocket is to carry a stripped-down Blue Moon Mark 2 test lander to low Earth orbit. Parsons said the lander can wait up to a month in orbit, but NASA wants the crew to follow as soon as possible. The videos note that New Glenn is still returning to flight after a pad accident earlier in 2026.
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Watch this moment · 35:31
SLS and Orion launch
The Space Launch System lifts Orion and four astronauts into an elliptical orbit of 16 by 975 nautical miles. Over the first day Orion lowers to about 300 nautical miles to keep its temperature stable. The upper stage is replaced by a spacer, because the core stage alone can reach the orbit.
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Watch this moment · 36:02
Docking with Blue Moon
Orion rendezvous and docks with the Blue Moon test lander at about 237 nautical miles. NASA calls it the first major test: guidance, laser navigation, control and communications working across two vehicles from two companies.
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Watch this moment · 36:33
Crew enters the lander
Docked, the crew opens the hatch, enters the lander, checks its life support and cabin pressure, tries emergency scenarios and flies the pair with dual-vehicle control. The video 292 narrator points out that no NASA crew has been inside a lunar lander in space since the Apollo era.
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Watch this moment · 37:03
Starship docking
Starship launches from Florida, and Orion moves to a 206 nautical mile orbit to meet it on flight day 8. Starship carries a docking port on its nose and the crew will not go inside. The docked demonstration lasts about two hours and measures the forces of docking two very different sized vehicles.
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Watch this moment · 37:33
Suits, health and science
The crew tests the Orion survival suits, which were not finished on Artemis II, runs docking sensor, acoustic and thermal tests, and tries health checks without help from mission control. NASA says every hour of the 14 days is already planned.
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Watch this moment · 50:03
Milestones before Artemis IV
NASA expects Starship flight 15, a first orbital propellant transfer between two Starships in early 2027, and uncrewed landings by both landers. Blue Origin plans two Blue Moon Mark 1 landings in 2027. NASA will pick the Artemis IV lander as late as it can.
Videos about this mission
The videos, in date order
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October – November 2026
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Dates are when each video was first published on YouTube.
Why a rehearsal in orbit
Artemis I flew without a crew in 2022. Artemis II carried four astronauts around the Moon from 1 April 2026. Artemis III was to land. In the briefing summary and in video 328, the reasons for the change are the same: both landers were not expected to be ready before late 2027, and the Gateway station, which was to be Orion's meeting point, had been removed from the plan. Video 292 says the new plan was first announced in February 2026 and has changed since.
NASA's own page describes Artemis III as a crewed demonstration in low Earth orbit that will test one or both human landing systems, with the first landing on Artemis IV. In the 23 October briefing, Parsons said the crew was assigned on 9 June and had already done more than 350 hours of classroom training and 22 integrated simulations. The briefing names one of the four, mission specialist Andre Douglas, and video 292 says three are American and one is an Italian astronaut of the European Space Agency. NASA's mission page does not list the crew, and the others are not named here.
How the 14 days are planned
The baseline is 14 days, extendable to 17 if weather delays the launch. Three rockets are involved: New Glenn with the Blue Moon test lander, the Space Launch System with Orion, and a Starship from Kennedy's new pad. Parsons called it likely the most complicated launch campaign ever attempted.
Orion has never docked with a commercial lander. It was designed to meet a space station. The test is whether Orion, Blue Moon and later Starship can share data, agree on position and behave when a few inches apart at more than 17,000 miles an hour, as video 292 puts it. For Blue Origin it would be the first orbital docking and the first crewed operation in orbit.
Starship is the other half. NASA's reasons for not entering it are in the briefing and in video 292: Dragon has flown NASA crews for years, so trust in SpaceX life support is earned, and the open question is the size of Starship against a capsule. Video 223 also reports that two Starlink terminals were added to Orion in March 2026 to improve video downlink.
What this means for Artemis IV
The crew will not wear a Moon suit on this flight. NASA and Axiom Space are working on a lighter configuration called the Sortie suit, which the briefing says halves the mass from a little over 500 pounds to about 250 pounds and is set for moonwalks of at least two hours. The full suit is still being built.
NASA mapped two Artemis IV plans because it has not chosen a lander. Blue Origin would launch three transfer stages and the lander on four New Glenn rockets and avoid refuelling in orbit. SpaceX would fill a Starship depot with tanker flights and push Orion to the Moon with the lander. NASA said at least six Starship launches would be needed, and in the question session a NASA official said Elon Musk's figure of six to eight was closer to NASA's own tracking than a figure of 22. Orion's modification for being pushed is under way on the European service module.
Questions and answers
Will Artemis III land on the Moon?
No. NASA's mission page describes a crewed demonstration in low Earth orbit. The first landing is planned for Artemis IV, targeted for 2028.
When is Artemis III planned to launch?
NASA's page says 2027. In the 23 October briefing it was described as summer 2027, with a 14-day baseline that can stretch to 17.
Who is flying Artemis III?
Four astronauts. The briefing names mission specialist Andre Douglas, and video 292 says three are American and one is an Italian astronaut from the European Space Agency. NASA's mission page does not list the crew.
What are the two landers?
Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 and SpaceX's Starship. For this flight they are test versions: a stripped-down Blue Moon the crew can enter, and a production Starship with a docking port that the crew cannot enter.
Why is the Space Launch System missing its upper stage?
The core stage can reach the orbit this mission needs. A spacer of the same height takes the place of the upper stage so the rocket still fits the existing launch tower and crew access.
What could still delay it?
The videos point to New Glenn returning to flight, Blue Origin's first orbital docking, Starship's first propellant transfer and the finished test landers. NASA's plan for each is in the briefing, but none has flown yet.
Sources: The facts and written text on this page come from the 3 videos on this page, by NASA, The Space Race, Cosmic Enigma.
