Artemis Program

The Artemis program is NASA's campaign to return astronauts to the Moon, build repeatable lunar operations, and use those operations to prepare technologies and crews for missions to Mars. Established in 2017 and named in 2019,^[4][5] it has flown two missions: the uncrewed Artemis I in 2022 and the crewed Artemis II lunar flyby in April 2026.^[10][12] NASA targets the program's first crewed landing, on Artemis IV, for 2028.^{[1][2][28][48]}

Artemis combines the government-owned Space Launch System and Orion with commercially developed lunar landers, spacesuits, robotic deliveries, and contributions from international partners. NASA's architecture has changed repeatedly, so Artemis is better understood as an evolving campaign than as one fixed sequence of vehicles and dates.^[1]

Status as of November 2026#

As of November 15, 2026, NASA's plan has Artemis III, a crewed docking test in low Earth orbit, flying in mid-2027 and Artemis IV making the first landing in 2028.^[47][48] In a September 20 memo, Administrator Jared Isaacman had put Artemis III about 90 days behind schedule;^[30][31] at an October 23 briefing he said the memo was meant to galvanize the workforce and that mid-2027 still held.^[47] Late in October, technicians joined the Artemis III core stage to the stacked boosters, a partial rocket that is to roll to Pad 39B for a tanking test.^[49] Officials said SpaceX expects to attempt its first in-space propellant transfer early in 2027 and an uncrewed lunar landing test late that year.^[47] Starship's fifteenth flight ended on November 14 with the first tower catch of a ship returning from orbit.^[50] Blue Origin's New Glenn was still grounded, and a company filing in early November listed a launch window opening on January 15, 2027.^[51] NASA also described a lighter Axiom "Sortie suit" for the first moonwalks and two upper-stage options for Artemis IV.^[48]

GAO reported in July 2026 that NASA was still revising acquisition plans, cost estimates, and project baselines after the February and March architecture changes. The mission dates above therefore describe NASA's plan on the article's update date, not an independent forecast of when each flight will occur.^[2]

Origins and objectives#

Artemis uses hardware with roots in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. That law directed NASA to develop a heavy-lift launch vehicle, which became SLS, and continue development of the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle.^[3] In December 2017, Space Policy Directive 1 ordered a United States-led program with commercial and international partners for human return to the Moon, followed by missions to Mars and other destinations.^[4]

NASA gave the campaign its current name in May 2019. Artemis, the Greek goddess associated with the Moon, was the twin sister of Apollo. At that time NASA aimed for a crewed south-polar landing in 2024 and a sustained presence by 2028; later budgets, technical problems, and architecture decisions displaced that schedule.^[5][2]

The campaign's published Moon to Mars objectives cover science, infrastructure, transportation, habitation, operations, and the effects of deep-space missions on people. NASA updates the architecture through a recurring analysis cycle rather than treating one design as permanent.^[6] The 2025 Architecture Definition Document, a NASA technical publication with a permanent DOI, describes that objective-led process and the trade studies used to connect lunar exploration with later Mars capabilities. It predates the 2026 redesign and should be read as the technical baseline for that cycle, not as a current flight manifest.^[7]

Lunar science is one reason for concentrating surface work near the south pole. A NASA science definition team identified polar volatiles, the Moon's impact history, interior, and geologic processes as high-priority investigations. Permanently shadowed terrain can preserve water ice and other compounds, while nearby illuminated areas may support longer surface operations. The abundance, distribution, physical form, and origin of those volatiles remain scientific questions rather than established resource reserves.^[8]

Artemis also has a diplomatic framework. NASA and the U.S. Department of State established the Artemis Accords with seven other founding countries in 2020. The nonbinding principles address peaceful use, transparency, emergency assistance, release of scientific data, preservation of heritage, and avoidance of harmful interference. Mauritius became the 70th signatory in July 2026,^[9] and San Marino became the 76th on September 25, 2026.^[41] Signing the Accords does not by itself supply hardware or a seat on an Artemis mission.^[9]

Mission record and current plan#

Artemis mission numbering no longer maps neatly to the profiles NASA described before 2026. In particular, the current Artemis III is an Earth-orbit test, while the first planned landing moved to Artemis IV.^[1]

NASA restated its targets at a briefing on October 23, 2026: Artemis III in mid-2027, and Artemis IV and Artemis V both in 2028.^[47][48] Its Artemis IV page, updated on September 1, had targeted the first landing for early 2028, and an October 14 media advisory spoke of returning astronauts to the lunar surface "by 2028".^[28][29] Isaacman's September memo to staff was more guarded, treating two landing attempts in 2028 as the best case and putting Artemis III about 90 days behind; at the briefing he said that note had been meant to galvanize the workforce.^[30][47] Outside reporting has varied as well. Spaceflight Now called the 2028 Artemis IV target ambitious,^[37] NASASpaceFlight gave Artemis III's target as no earlier than June 2027,^[46] and Space.com wrote on October 14 that NASA was targeting late 2028 for Artemis IV, later than the date on NASA's own Artemis IV page.^[35][28]

Artemis I#

Artemis I launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022. Orion passed the Moon, entered distant retrograde orbit, came within about 80 miles of the lunar surface on a later flyby, and splashed down on December 11. The flight tested the integrated launch system and recovered Orion after a high-energy lunar return.^[10]

Inspectors found more cracking and loss of charred Avcoat material on Orion's heat shield than models had predicted. NASA concluded that gases generated within the heat shield could not vent quickly enough during the planned skip-entry trajectory; pressure then cracked and released pieces of char. For Artemis II, NASA changed the entry trajectory to reduce the relevant heating and pressure conditions. It also began incorporating manufacturing and design changes into later Orion heat shields.^[11]

Artemis II#

Artemis II launched Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on April 1, 2026. They splashed down off San Diego on April 10 after traveling 695,081 miles. NASA measured their greatest distance from Earth at 252,756 miles, farther than any previous crewed mission, and reported a closest approach of 4,067 miles above the Moon.^[12]

The mission tested Orion with people aboard, including life support, manual control, navigation, communications, and recovery operations. The crew returned more than 7,000 images. An experimental optical terminal transmitted 484 gigabytes and reached a peak downlink rate of 260 megabits per second, demonstrating a higher-capacity path for imagery alongside Orion's operational radio links.^[12][13]

NASA released a fuller analysis of Orion's heat shield on October 15, 2026. Engineers found nine spots of char loss on the Artemis II shield, compared with 103 on Artemis I, and NASA credited the shorter entry trajectory with cutting cracking and char loss by a factor of ten.^[45] On October 7, the agency had placed more than 800 gigabytes of the mission's lunar science data in its Planetary Data System, including more than 11,000 images and videos and 8.5 hours of the crew's recorded observations.^[44]

Artemis III#

NASA named the Artemis III crew in June 2026: Randy Bresnik as commander, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano as pilot, and Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas as mission specialists. Bob Hines is the backup. Parmitano is the first ESA astronaut assigned to an Artemis mission.^[15] In September the prime and backup crews made their first joint visit to Florida since the assignment, touring their Orion spacecraft and boosters at Kennedy, and also visited SpaceX and Blue Origin to see the landers' progress.^[32]

The current plan calls for three launches in a short campaign. Blue Origin's test article would launch first and could wait in orbit for as long as 30 days. SLS would then launch Orion and its crew. After Orion docks with the Blue Origin vehicle for about two days, a SpaceX Starship test article would launch and dock for about one day. Orion would act as the approaching vehicle at both dockings.^[14][15] At the October 23 briefing, officials said Orion would dock with the Blue Origin vehicle on the third day of the 14-day flight, that Starship would launch on the sixth day, and that Orion would stay docked to it for only about two hours.^[47][48] SpaceX said on October 1, 2026, that its Starship test article for the mission would lift off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy, where the company was moving its new Starship pad into acceptance and activation testing.^[34]

The demonstrations are deliberately different. The Blue Origin article is based on the Mark 2 crew cabin and is intended to test avionics, software, controls, and side docking. Up to two Orion-suited astronauts could enter it, and it would carry an instrumented mass simulator representing a lunar spacesuit. The Starship article would test nose-to-nose docking, but the crew would not enter it. Neither vehicle would travel to the Moon on Artemis III.^[14]

In May 2026, NASA said Artemis III would replace the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage with a nonpropulsive spacer; Orion's European Service Module would finish circularizing the initial orbit. By July, technicians had started stacking the twin solid rocket boosters at Kennedy. NASA also reported that the Artemis III crew module uses a redesigned heat shield made from 186 molded Avcoat blocks.^[16][17]

Technicians began installing the core stage's four RS-25 engines on August 24, and that month engineers powered up the joined Orion crew and service modules for the first time.^[33] Booster stacking was completed on September 30, and by October 13 all four engines had been installed.^[32] In mid-October, NASA planned to join the core stage to the boosters within weeks and roll that partial "short stack" to Pad 39B in the coming months for a tanking test and a crew launch-day rehearsal, while the spacer and two stage adapters were to ship from Marshall to Kennedy early in 2027.^[32] Technicians lifted the core stage on October 22 and by October 28 it stood between the boosters on the mobile launcher in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, completing the short stack. For the tanking test, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded into the core stage only.^[49] Isaacman's September memo described the tanking test as a year-end milestone and named valves and thrust vector control actuators among the parts NASA was pressing suppliers to deliver on schedule.^[30]

Program architecture#

SLS, Orion, and launch systems#

The Space Launch System provides the high-energy launch for Artemis missions, while Orion carries the crew through launch, deep space, reentry, and recovery. The European Service Module supplies Orion with propulsion, electrical power, thermal control, water, oxygen, and nitrogen. ESA leads the module, with industrial contributions distributed across Europe.^[18]

The 2026 architecture ended the plan to introduce the Exploration Upper Stage and Mobile Launcher 2. Artemis III is to use the spacer described above, and GAO reported that Artemis IV would use the final Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. NASA said in August 2026 that this remaining stage had been reassigned to Artemis IV.^[43] NASA was pursuing a modified United Launch Alliance Centaur V for Artemis V and later missions, but launcher interfaces, procurement decisions, and Mobile Launcher 1 changes were still being worked in 2026.^[2][16]

This approach keeps the core SLS-Orion system while changing how the upper-stage function is provided from mission to mission. It also transfers schedule pressure to work that was not part of the earlier Block 1B plan. GAO found that the responsible projects were reassessing cost and schedule baselines after the redesign.^[2]

Human landing systems#

NASA is buying Artemis lunar landings as a service through firm-fixed-price milestone contracts. The contractors retain ownership of their systems, while NASA pays for development milestones, demonstrations, and mission services. SpaceX and Blue Origin must both solve a much broader transportation problem than the final descent vehicle alone.^[19]

Those figures describe potential values within defined task orders, not estimates of each company's total investment or the full cost of a landing. NASA has not assigned either provider to Artemis IV. Under the current plan, readiness and the results of development and demonstrations are supposed to determine which system attempts the first landing.^[1][2][19]

Both companies have simplified their landing architectures. As NASA described them in October 2026, a Starship refueled in Earth orbit would rendezvous with Orion there and carry it toward the Moon, where two astronauts would transfer to the lander for the trip to the surface and back. Blue Origin dropped in-space propellant transfer from its plan and would instead use three of its smaller Blue Moon Mark 1 spacecraft as tugs to send the Mark 2 lander to lunar orbit, where it would meet Orion.^[47][48] NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel raised concerns the day before the briefing about lander readiness and the requirement for only one uncrewed landing test from each provider.^[47]

Both providers' near-term schedules depend on their rockets. Starship reached orbit for the first time on its 14th flight, on September 28, 2026,^[37] and on its 15th flight the launch tower caught the ship as it returned from orbit on November 14.^[50] SpaceX had not transferred propellant between two vehicles by mid-November; NASA officials said on October 23 that the company expected its first attempt early in 2027 and its uncrewed lunar landing test late that year.^[35][47] Blue Origin's New Glenn, which NASA is relying on for the company's Artemis and Moon Base flights, has been grounded since one exploded during a static-fire test at its Florida pad on May 28, 2026.^[38][39] The company was still rebuilding the pad in October, and Jeff Bezos said the return-to-flight mission was targeted for December.^[39] A filing the company made with the Federal Communications Commission in early November listed a window for preflight checkouts and launch that opens on January 15, 2027.^[51] Isaacman wrote in September that NASA was helping Blue Origin rebuild the pad and investigate the accident, and was working to have both companies' test landers ready to support Artemis III in mid-2027.^[30]

Lunar spacesuits#

NASA procures the Artemis lunar spacesuit as a service under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services contract. NASA selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace in 2022 under a contract structure with a combined maximum ordering value of $3.1 billion. NASA removed the Collins task orders in 2024, leaving Axiom as the only active lunar-suit provider.^[20]

The NASA Inspector General reported in April 2026 that both the lunar-surface demonstration and a separate space-station demonstration were at least 18 months behind their original schedules. The audit identified design maturity, integrated testing, and dependence on a single provider as risks to suit availability for a 2028 landing. The Artemis III Blue Origin test article will carry a suit mass simulator, not a suited lunar-surface test by an astronaut.^[20][14]

Ars Technica reported on September 2, 2026, that NASA had decided, at the direction of Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons, to have Axiom develop a simpler "Sortie Suit" variant for the first landings on both companies' landers. According to the report, the aim is to cut the suit's mass and complexity and to simplify how it connects to the landers.^[40] NASA confirmed the plan in October 2026: the Sortie suit is roughly half the weight of Axiom's primary suit, which it does not replace and which is reserved for longer and more demanding missions.^[48]

Robotic deliveries and surface systems#

Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, buys end-to-end robotic delivery services from companies rather than NASA owning each lander. As of July 2026, NASA reported 17 delivery awards to five vendors, more than 60 NASA payloads assigned, and 13 companies eligible to compete under contracts with a combined ceiling of $2.6 billion through November 2028.^[21]

CLPS accepts higher mission risk in exchange for commercial competition and a faster flight rhythm. Its record includes both losses and successful deliveries. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 landed upright in March 2025 and delivered ten NASA science and technology instruments, demonstrating that the model can place a useful payload suite on the surface without making every delivery successful.^[21][22]

From Gateway to the Moon Base plan#

For years, NASA organized later Artemis missions around Gateway, a small station intended for lunar orbit. In March 2026, the agency said it would pause Gateway in its current form, assess how completed or partly completed systems could be reused, and concentrate near-term architecture on surface infrastructure. The announcement did not establish that all Gateway hardware had been canceled or that every component already had a funded replacement use.^[23][25]

NASA divided its proposed Moon Base into three phases. Phase 1 uses CLPS landers, autonomous systems, unpressurized rovers, and the Lunar Terrain Vehicle. Phase 2 would add semi-habitable infrastructure, regular logistics, and a pressurized rover contribution led by Japan. Phase 3 would add cargo versions of the commercial landers and heavier infrastructure, including planned Italian and Canadian surface contributions. These phases are NASA's 2026 planning architecture; they are not completed facilities or a fully appropriated construction schedule.^[23]

In August, NASA described Phase 1 as already underway through 2029 and said its plan included more than 20 robotic landings. It also said Northrop Grumman was adapting power and avionics hardware developed for Gateway's Habitation and Logistics Outpost into three planned surface demonstrations for lunar-night survival and shared power. Neither the landing count nor those demonstrations had been completed at the time of the announcement.^[24] By late September, NASA's launch schedule listed Blue Origin's first Blue Moon Mark 1 mission, bound for the Shackleton Connecting Ridge near the south pole, for January 2027.^[36]

The change left substantial work in transition. The Inspector General reported that NASA was terminating or repurposing the Exploration Upper Stage, Universal Stage Adapter, Mobile Launcher 2, and Gateway's Habitation and Logistics Outpost project. Across those four efforts, estimated contract value had risen from about $2.8 billion to $5.9 billion and deliveries had slipped by as much as seven years before the 2026 decisions. Contract value is not the same as money spent, but the figures show the scale of obligations NASA had to unwind or redirect.^[25]

Costs and oversight#

There is no single current number that represents the full cost of Artemis. NASA develops the campaign through many projects and mission directorates, and public estimates use different time periods and include different hardware. Adding those figures together would double-count some work.^[2][26]

In 2021, the NASA Inspector General projected about $93 billion in Artemis-related obligations from fiscal years 2012 through 2025. The same audit estimated roughly $4.1 billion in production and operations cost for each of the first four SLS-Orion launches, including ground systems. Those were scoped, pre-2026 estimates, not a current lifecycle estimate for the revised campaign.^[26]

The 2026 lander audit found that NASA had obligated $6.9 billion to Human Landing System work since 2019 and estimated $18.3 billion in HLS obligations through fiscal year 2030. That figure covers the lander program, not SLS, Orion, spacesuits, launch facilities, science payloads, or the Moon Base plan.^[19]

GAO reported a current Orion lifecycle estimate of about $14.8 billion and an initial HLS estimate of about $4.9 billion in its January 2026 project data. The HLS baseline was under review after the mission changes. More importantly, GAO said NASA still had not produced a lifecycle cost estimate for the first crewed Artemis landing as of May 2026.^[2]

Congress separately appropriated $4.1 billion in 2025 for SLS vehicles for Artemis IV and V, with minimum annual amounts specified for fiscal years 2026 through 2029. That statutory funding supports two launch vehicles, but it does not fund every element required for either mission and does not establish that the flights will meet NASA's target dates.^[27][2]

Fiscal year 2027 began on October 1, 2026, without a full-year appropriation for NASA.^[42] A continuing resolution signed on September 2 keeps the agency at its 2026 funding level of $24.4 billion through December 11, well above the administration's request of $18.8 billion.^[42] On November 12 the Senate Appropriations Committee released its version of the bill that funds NASA, proposing $24.874 billion for the agency; the House committee's version, approved in May, recommends $24.4 billion. Neither chamber had passed its bill by mid-November.^[52]

Technical and schedule risks#

The Artemis program's largest risks are linked rather than isolated. A late lander affects astronaut training, suit integration, Orion docking tests, launch planning, and the landing date. A change to one mission can also shift which upper stage, launcher, ground system, or surface asset the next mission needs.^[2]

Artemis has already produced two completed deep-space missions and a tested crew spacecraft. The next phase is harder to forecast because it depends on commercial landers, suit certification, repeated orbital refueling, a new upper-stage approach, and a surface architecture announced only months before this update. The most accurate way to follow the program is to separate completed flight results from NASA's dated plan and from contractor development targets.^[2][19][20]

References#

1. NASA Strengthens Artemis: Adds Mission, Refines Overall Architecture - NASA, March 3, 2026.
2. NASA: Assessments of Major Projects - U.S. Government Accountability Office, July 23, 2026.
3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 - U.S. Congress, October 11, 2010.
4. New Space Policy Directive Calls for Human Expansion Across Solar System - NASA, December 11, 2017.
5. NASA's Moon to Mars Plans: Artemis Lunar Program Gets Fast Tracked in 2019 - NASA, May 14, 2019.
6. Moon to Mars Architecture: Strategy and Objectives - NASA, accessed August 12, 2026.
7. Moon to Mars Architecture Definition Document, Revision C - NASA Technical Reports Server, December 12, 2025.
8. Artemis III Science Definition Team Report - NASA, December 2020.
9. NASA Welcomes Mauritius as 70th Artemis Accords Signatory - NASA, July 17, 2026.
10. Artemis I Reference - NASA, accessed August 12, 2026.
11. NASA Identifies Cause of Artemis I Orion Heat Shield Char Loss - NASA, December 5, 2024.
12. NASA Welcomes Record-Setting Artemis II Moonfarers Back to Earth - NASA, April 10, 2026.
13. NASA Laser Terminal Enhances Views During Artemis II Mission - NASA, April 28, 2026.
14. How NASA's Artemis III Lander Test Will Pave Way for Moon Landings - NASA, July 15, 2026.
15. NASA Marches Toward Artemis III Mission in 2027, Names Crew Members - NASA, June 9, 2026.
16. NASA Outlines Preliminary Artemis III Mission Plans - NASA, May 13, 2026.
17. NASA's Artemis III Flight Hardware Stacks Up at Kennedy - NASA, July 13, 2026.
18. European Service Module - European Space Agency, accessed August 12, 2026.
19. NASA's Management of the Human Landing System Contracts - NASA Office of Inspector General, March 10, 2026.
20. NASA's Acquisition of Next-Generation Spacesuit Services - NASA Office of Inspector General, April 20, 2026.
21. Commercial Lunar Payload Services - NASA, updated July 6, 2026.
22. Touchdown: Carrying NASA Science, Firefly's Blue Ghost Lands on Moon - NASA, March 2, 2025.
23. NASA Unveils Initiatives to Achieve America's National Space Policy - NASA, March 24, 2026.
24. NASA Provides Updates on Moon Base Cargo Landers, Tech Demonstrations - NASA, August 4, 2026.
25. Canceled or Repurposed Artemis Campaign Systems - NASA Office of Inspector General, June 24, 2026.
26. NASA's Management of the Artemis Missions - NASA Office of Inspector General, November 15, 2021.
27. Public Law 119-21 - U.S. Congress, July 4, 2025.
28. Artemis IV - NASA, updated September 1, 2026.
29. NASA to Discuss Artemis Acceleration, Status of Upcoming Moon Missions - NASA, October 14, 2026.
30. "Lengthy Note" From Jared Isaacman To NASA - NASA Watch, September 21, 2026.
31. Isaacman on his internal Artemis memo - NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on X, September 25, 2026.
32. NASA Completes Artemis III Booster Stacking, Shares Status Update - NASA, October 13, 2026.
33. NASA Starts Artemis III Engine Install; Boosters, Crew Training Advance - NASA, August 27, 2026.
34. 'Things are going super well at 39A': SpaceX gearing up to launch Starship from Florida for 1st time - Space.com, October 7, 2026.
35. SpaceX's Starship just turned 10 years old. When will it go to Mars? - Space.com, October 14, 2026.
36. Moon Base: Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 - NASA, updated September 22, 2026.
37. Starship returns to Earth; rocket splashes down north of Hawaii after three-hour flight - Spaceflight Now, September 28, 2026.
38. Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explodes during prelaunch testing at Cape Canaveral - Spaceflight Now, May 29, 2026.
39. Blue Origin Advances LC-36 Rebuild for Year-End New Glenn Return to Flight - NASASpaceFlight, October 11, 2026.
40. Wary of Artemis IV timeline, NASA is changing lunar spacesuit design - Ars Technica, September 2, 2026.
41. Artemis Accords - NASA, updated October 7, 2026.
42. House Clears FY2027 CR, Now to the President - SpacePolicyOnline, September 1, 2026.
43. NASA Joins Artemis III Orion Modules; Rocket Hardware Update - NASA, August 5, 2026.
44. NASA Releases Artemis II Lunar Science Data, Images - NASA, October 7, 2026.
45. Rigorous Analysis Confirms NASA's Artemis II Heat Shield Performance - NASA, October 15, 2026.
46. Artemis III SLS teams prepare short stack for pad tanking test - NASASpaceFlight, October 14, 2026.
47. NASA is Full Steam Ahead on Artemis III, IV and V - SpacePolicyOnline, October 23, 2026.
48. NASA Shares Plans to Accelerate Artemis, Return to Moon - NASA, November 4, 2026.
49. Artemis III SLS Core Stage Joins Boosters at Kennedy - NASA, October 28, 2026.
50. SpaceX Catches a Starship - SpacePolicyOnline, November 14, 2026.
51. ULA delays to Sunday Vulcan rocket launch of 40 Leo satellites for Amazon - Spaceflight Now, November 13, 2026.
52. Senate Appropriations CJS Subcommittee Proposes $24.9 Billion for NASA in FY2027 - SpacePolicyOnline, November 12, 2026.