NASA Details New Lunar Landing Path

NASA has laid out a detailed roadmap for getting astronauts back on the lunar surface, with a landing targeted for 2028. During a news conference on Friday, the agency walked through the specific steps and vehicles it plans to use as part of its Artemis Program. This is the first time the agency has presented these plans in full, and it confirmed some notable adjustments to the mission architecture.

The proposed timeline sets a demonstration mission, called Artemis III, for summer 2027. This flight would involve docking with both the Blue Moon and Starship landers near Earth. Following that, the Artemis IV mission, which would carry out the actual landing on the Moon, remains on track for a 2028 launch. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman expressed confidence in the agency's ability to meet these targets. "This is an achievable path we are on right now," he said. "We have the mandate, we have the resources, and the support from our stakeholders to be able to execute, and that's what we intend to do."

The revised plans for the mission involve changes for both SpaceX and Blue Origin. For SpaceX's Starship lunar lander, the Orion spacecraft will now dock with it in high-Earth orbit before the journey to the Moon. For Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, the plan calls for four launches of the New Glenn rocket. This approach does not require any refueling between spacecraft. The Blue Origin architecture also allows for the possibility of the Blue Moon lander meeting up with Orion in low-Lunar orbit.

For SpaceX, the change to the mission plan is significant. Earlier this year, engineers had requested that NASA remove a requirement to dock with the Orion spacecraft in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon. That particular maneuver demanded more energy and presented other difficulties. The cancellation of the Lunar Gateway project by NASA earlier this year resolved that issue for SpaceX.

The agency's leadership has reviewed all parts of the Artemis Program and sought to make changes where they can help the lander companies execute and accelerate their plans. The question now is whether NASA can hold to the 2027 and 2028 dates it has just outlined. The next steps involve carrying out the planned missions according to this new architecture, beginning with the Artemis III demonstration flight.