NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on October 23 that Artemis III remains targeted for summer 2027 and Artemis IV for 2028. Artemis III will be an Earth-orbit test with commercial landers, while Artemis IV is planned as the first crewed landing since Apollo.
At Kennedy Space Center on October 23, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described an effort to move Artemis work faster while reaffirming the existing targets of summer 2027 for Artemis III and 2028 for Artemis IV. Isaacman said NASA is still on track to launch Artemis III next summer on a docking exercise with the lunar landers from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. He said Artemis IV, NASA's first moon landing by astronauts since Apollo, remains scheduled for 2028.
What Artemis III will do
Under the plan, Artemis III will fly to low Earth orbit for rendezvous and docking maneuvers with SpaceX's Starship and/or Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander instead of landing on the Moon. Four astronauts will fly aboard Orion, launched on SLS, for a planned 14-day mission in Earth orbit. The mission will test rendezvous, docking and operations between Orion and lander test vehicles from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The restructured plan
In February 2026, NASA announced a restructuring of Artemis that moved the first planned lunar landing from Artemis III to Artemis IV and added an intermediate mission to test commercial landers in Earth orbit. Artemis 4 has been designated the first crewed moon landing, which NASA still hopes to accomplish in 2028, with a possible second landing that year on Artemis 5. NASA is advancing toward the Artemis III test flight in 2027 and the Artemis IV landing mission in 2028. NASA is also committing approximately US$20 billion to a program to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon's surface.
Lander partners and spacesuits
Isaacman said NASA intended to keep viable paths open with both SpaceX and Blue Origin until data and schedule considerations made a choice necessary, and he did not name a selected partner. Officials said NASA will keep its options open as long as possible before choosing between the two for the Artemis IV lander. The first Artemis moonwalkers will wear a lighter, less complex suit than the one Axiom Space is developing for longer, later excursions. Axiom will test these sortie suits on the International Space Station next year. The sortie suit is roughly half the weight of the larger suit and will not replace Axiom's primary suit.
Artemis II background
In April, Artemis II carried four astronauts around the Moon, the first crewed lunar journey in more than 50 years. The flight brought humanity the closest it had been to the Moon in 50 years.
