Apollo vs Artemis

Apollo was a Cold War sprint: land first, whatever the cost. Artemis is built to stay, with commercial landers, international partners, and the water ice of the lunar south pole as the draw. The contrast shows up in nearly every architectural choice.

Missions19 min

Apollo program

NASA's Apollo program landed 12 astronauts on the Moon across six missions from 1969 to 1972, returning 382 kg of lunar samples at a cost of $25.8 billion.

Missions24 min

Artemis Program

Artemis is NASA's Moon-to-Mars campaign. Artemis II flew around the Moon in 2026; Artemis III will test landers before a planned 2028 landing.

Key differences

Goal: Apollo aimed to beat the Soviet Union to the surface. Artemis aims at a sustained presence and a proving ground for Mars, and its Artemis Accords had 76 signatory nations after San Marino signed on September 25, 2026.
Architecture: Apollo flew everything on one Saturn V. Artemis splits the job between the Space Launch System with Orion for crew transport and commercial landers, Starship HLS and Blue Moon, for the surface. Those landers need orbital propellant transfer, which has not been demonstrated.
Destination: Apollo landed near the equator in daylight. Artemis targets the south pole, where permanently shadowed craters hold water ice; NASA paused the Gateway lunar station in March 2026 and redirected the program toward a surface base there.
Pace and budget: NASA's budget reached about 4.4 percent of all federal spending in 1966, and Apollo put 12 people on the Moon in the 41 months from July 1969 to December 1972. Artemis has flown twice since 2022, Artemis III in 2027 is now an Earth-orbit docking test rather than a landing, and NASA targets the first crewed landing, on Artemis IV, for early 2028.

Side-by-side specifications

	Apollo program	Artemis Program
Operator	NASA	NASA with commercial and international partners
Program duration	1961-1972	-
Launch vehicles	Saturn V, Saturn IB	-
Mission mode	Lunar orbit rendezvous	-
First crewed flight	Apollo 7, October 11, 1968	-
Crewed missions	11 (Apollo 7 to Apollo 17)	-
First lunar landing	Apollo 11, July 20, 1969	-
Crewed lunar landings	6	-
Moonwalkers	12	-
Samples returned	382 kg (842 lb)	-
Cost	$25.8 billion (1960-1973), about $309 billion in 2025 dollars	-
Program established	-	2017; named Artemis in 2019
Primary objective	-	Sustained human and robotic exploration of the Moon
Crew spacecraft	-	Orion
Launch vehicle	-	Space Launch System
Commercial landers	-	Starship HLS and Blue Moon
Completed missions	-	Artemis I and Artemis II
Next mission	-	Artemis III, targeted for 2027

Figures come from each article's infobox; see the articles for sources and context.

The two articles

Apollo program

Artemis Program

Key differences

Side-by-side specifications

Sources