NASA is reworking its Artemis moon program to add a test mission for commercial lunar landers in low Earth orbit next year, with a crewed lunar landing to follow in 2028 at the earliest. The revised plan raises the profile of the Blue Moon lander that’s being built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.
“We’re all in!” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to X.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took up his post last December, announced the schedule shift today. “This is going to be our pathway back to the moon,” he said.
The next step in the pathway is the same as it has been: NASA is getting set to use its giant Space Launch System rocket to launch four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon in an Orion capsule. That Artemis 2 mission is currently set for no earlier than April, due to a helium leak that forced this week’s rocket rollback from the launch pad for troubleshooting.
NASA’s previous plan called for following up on Artemis 2 with a crewed lunar landing next year for Artemis 3. However, the development of the SpaceX Starship lander for that mission has proceeded more slowly than expected.
Under the revised architecture, Artemis 3 becomes a crewed orbital test for SpaceX’s Starship and/or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander. The mission could also serve to test the next-generation spacesuits that are being developed for the crew’s extravehicular activities. The Artemis program’s first crewed lunar landing would follow in 2028, using either Starship or Blue Moon.
This parallels the mission timeline for the Apollo moon effort: In 1969, Apollo 9 tested the lunar lander in Earth orbit, setting the stage for Apollo 10’s moon-orbiting test mission and the historic Apollo 11 moon landing just months later.
NASA’s revised mission architecture also holds up plans for the development of an upgraded upper stage for the SLS rocket. NASA and its commercial partners would instead go to a standardized rocket configuration that would allow for at least one mission to the lunar surface per year. “Standardizing vehicle configuration, increasing flight rate and progressing through objectives in a logical, phased approach is how we achieved the near-impossible in 1969, and it is how we will do it again,” Isaacman said.
Boeing, which had been in charge of developing the next-generation upper stage, signaled that it was on board with the new approach. “As NASA lays out an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are prepared to meet the increased production needs,” Steve Parker, the president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said in a news release.
The revised plan addresses concerns that the earlier schedule for a crewed lunar landing in 2027 was becoming increasingly unrealistic — and that going directly from Artemis 2 to a moon landing, without a crewed test of the lunar lander, would be too risky.
The new plan “reflects the adjustments that we need to keep our schedule credible and our teams focused on what matters most, which is safe and achievable missions,” NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said.
The revision also comes amid concerns that China might land astronauts on the moon before NASA does. In response to a question, Isaacman acknowledged the competition with China but downplayed its role in discussions about the Artemis schedule.
“I think competition is good,” he told reporters. “We’re here talking to you about what is a common-sense approach to achieve the objective, whether we had a great rival in the running or not. If we’re committed to going back to the moon, we have the resources to do it again. We have a presidential mandate to get the job done. What is an achievable strategy, regardless of the competition? And I can tell you, launching every three-plus years is not the right approach.”
NASA said it would refine its plan for next year’s Artemis 3 test mission after completing detailed reviews with its industry partners. “We had a chance to have these discussions across all of our industry partners. … Everybody agrees this is the only way forward,” Isaacman said. “And I’ll say we had similar conversations with all our stakeholders in Congress, and they’re fully behind NASA in this approach.”
Blue Origin is already accelerating its Blue Moon development program. Last month, the Kent, Wash.-based company said it was putting its suborbital New Shepard program on hold for at least two years to shift resources to lunar projects. An uncrewed, cargo-carrying version of the Blue Moon lander is due for launch to the moon sometime this year.
It’s been three years since Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to provide a crewed version of the lander for missions starting with Artemis 5, which at the time was scheduled for 2029. When hints about a revised Artemis mission timeline began popping up last year, a Blue Origin executive said the Blue Moon development timeline could be revised as well.
“If NASA wants to accelerate us to go faster, then we would ramp that up faster,” John Couluris, vice president of Blue Origin’s lunar permanence division, said last September. “It’s right now gauged on Artemis 5. If they want us to go earlier, we would engage a lot faster.”
