NASA revamps Artemis moon landing plan to tighten flight schedule

NASA said Friday it is changing the Artemis mission sequence to make the program more like Apollo’s faster cadence, including an extra practice flight before any astronaut landing on the moon. The announcement follows a period of delays and renewed attention to readiness after problems with the space agency’s rocket hardware and safety assessments.

NASA said the overhaul comes just days after the Artemis II moon rocket returned to its hangar for more repairs, with NASA’s safety panel warning the agency to scale back goals for the first lunar landing with astronauts since 1972. Artemis II, which NASA describes as a lunar fly-around by four astronauts, is now off until at least April due to rocket problems.

NASA also said it is reshaping the next mission in the Artemis sequence. Artemis III had been targeting a landing near the moon’s south pole by another pair of astronauts in about three years, but NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday that the mission would instead focus on launching a lunar lander into orbit around Earth in 2027 to support docking practice by astronauts in Orion.

Isaacman said that next year will include Orion crew rendezvousing in orbit around Earth with SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon or both landers, as part of that docking-practice approach. He said NASA plans to move from there to moon landings by astronauts in 2028, with the agency saying the plan could include even two landings.

Isaacman said NASA’s objective is to reduce the time gaps between Artemis missions and lower risk while refining steps toward landing. “Everybody agrees. This is the only way forward,” he said, adding that it should be “incredibly obvious” that the roughly three-year gaps between flights are unacceptable.

To explain the revised approach, Isaacman pointed to NASA’s Apollo-era pacing. During Apollo, he said, an initial trip to the moon by astronauts was followed by two more missions before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed, and he said the Apollo moonshots followed each other in quick succession, similar to the rapid flight rates during earlier Projects Mercury and Gemini.

NASA said it will also standardize the Space Launch System rockets moving forward, while other companies speed up work on landers intended to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. Isaacman said the agency’s massive rockets will launch astronauts to the moon aboard Orion capsules, and he said SpaceX and Blue Origin are racing to build the landers needed for the lunar-surface phase.

The announcement came as NASA responds to an Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel recommendation this week to revise Artemis III objectives “given the demanding mission goals.” Isaacman said the revised Artemis flight plan addresses the panel’s concerns and is supported by industry and the Trump administration.

In addition, NASA said the hydrogen fuel leaks and helium flow problems that hit the Space Launch System rocket earlier this month at Kennedy Space Center had also plagued the first uncrewed Artemis test flight in 2022. Isaacman said he wants to speed the overall timeline, saying he would like to bring the time between flights down to one year or even less as NASA proceeds.