Artemis 3 Update: Rocket Progress, Landers and the 2028 Plan

Artemis 3, planned for summer 2027, will not land on the Moon at all: it is a low Earth orbit mission in which four astronauts in the Orion spacecraft practise docking with two different commercial test landers, one from Blue Origin and one from SpaceX. NASA officials laid out the plan on October 23, 2026, at Kennedy Space Center, alongside updates on Artemis 4, the mission now intended to return American astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028. Speakers were NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Associate Administrator and Chief Engineer Amit Kshatriya, and Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons.

A 14-day mission in low Earth orbit

Parsons said NASA has baselined a 14-day Artemis 3 mission, with the capability to extend to 17 days in case weather delays a launch. Every day is built around specific tests; he said that "literally every hour" is already planned.

The sequence begins with Blue Origin launching its Blue Moon test lander on New Glenn. The lander can loiter in orbit for up to a month, but NASA wants to minimise that risk and put the crew in orbit soon afterwards. SLS would already be on the pad, having completed a wet dress rehearsal.

SLS then launches Orion into an elliptical orbit of 16 by 975 nautical miles. Over the first day Orion moves down to about 300 nautical miles for thermal stability, because it was built as a deep space vehicle and the thermal environment is harsher in low Earth orbit. The crew spends the first two days checking out the spacecraft, and Orion maneuvers to a 237 nautical mile rendezvous orbit.

On flight day three, Orion rendezvous and docks with the Blue Moon test lander, testing guidance systems, laser navigation, and communications together. Over the next two days the crew opens the hatch, enters the lander, and evaluates environmental control and life support systems, cabin pressure, emergency scenarios, and dual vehicle control.

Around flight day six Starship launches from Florida. Orion undocks and adjusts to a 206 nautical mile orbit to meet Starship on flight day eight. The Artemis 3 Starship carries a docking system on its nose cone. That demonstration lasts about two hours and the crew will not enter Starship; the aim is to understand docking forces and how to control attitude with the two vehicles together.

Other objectives include Orion crew survival suit evaluations that were not completed on Artemis 2, docking sensor tests, acoustic and thermal measurements, and human factors assessments. Four human research studies build on Artemis 2 experiments, including a proof-of-concept study of how crew could perform health assessments when mission control is unavailable.

Crew and hardware progress

Since being assigned to Artemis 3 on June 9, the crew of Randy, Luca, Frank, and Andre have completed more than 350 hours of classroom instruction and 22 integrated simulations with the flight control team. Andre Douglas, a mission specialist, was shown stepping inside the Artemis 4 spacecraft. The flight control team in Houston has run 55 mission simulations, and the Kennedy launch team has logged 100 hours of simulations.

Booster stacking was completed at the end of September, five months after Artemis 2 landed. Parsons said preparation of booster segments for stacking was cut in half and stacking operations were cut by 20%. The mobile launcher returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building 17 days after the Artemis 2 launch. The core stage, nearly 28 feet in diameter with four RS-25 engines, was being weighed to calibrate the flight design before being raised in high bay 4 to join the boosters. A tanking test with the core stage and boosters, a "short stack" without Orion, is planned.

NASA redesigned the quick disconnect after hydrogen leaks on Artemis 1 and 2, an in-house effort that Parsons said went into testing in under five months at a fraction of the cost of a job that had been expected to cost tens of millions of dollars and take multiple years. Because Artemis 3 stays in low Earth orbit, a spacer built in-house will fly in place of the ICPS upper stage. Orion is more than 95% integrated, two Starlink terminals are being added, and more than 250 components have been approved for reuse from the Artemis 2 spacecraft.

Artemis 2 numbers

Kshatriya said the Artemis 2 rocket reached orbital insertion at 99.987% accuracy, at 27,227.75 feet per second, missing by 3.65 feet. Apogee was 1,200.21 nautical miles against a predicted 1,200.

Artemis 4 and the landers

For Artemis 4, NASA is carrying two upper stage configurations: the existing ICPS and a stretch Centaur with 50% more propellant capacity than the standard Vulcan Centaur V. Parsons said NASA lacked confidence that the Exploration Upper Stage could meet timelines. A kick stage, still under final study, could help get Orion to low lunar orbit.

The sortie spacesuit, developed with Axiom, cuts suit mass from a little over 500 pounds to about 250 pounds, with a minimum surface EVA duration of at least 2 hours. A baseline suit demonstration on the space station is still planned for 2027.

SpaceX's concept has a Starship lander docking with a modified Orion in high Earth orbit and pushing it toward low lunar orbit. SpaceX is targeting an uncrewed lunar surface demo at the end of 2027 and a first landing in the back half of 2028. Blue Origin plans three Mark 1-like transfer vehicles to carry the Mark 2 crew lander, meeting Orion in an elliptical polar lunar orbit. NASA intends to delay choosing a provider for the first landing as long as possible; both are planning 2028 landings.

Parsons said New Glenn pad operations should restart in November after a May incident. Starship flight 14, the first orbital flight of the Version 3 Starship, flew in late September, and a propellant transfer demonstration is targeted for early 2027. In questions, Parsons said Elon Musk's figure of 6 to 8 refueling flights is probably what SpaceX is planning for, and that early transfer losses could be 5 to 10%.

Asked about the lessons of Apollo 1, Isaacman said they have been captured around the agency, and cited current work on exploration atmosphere testing. Kshatriya said "speed and rigor are not the same dial."