Artemis II’s trip around the moon was a huge success. Now what?
NASA returned four astronauts from its Artemis II mission to Houston after the crew completed its flyby of the moon, and agency officials used the astronauts’ homecoming celebration to look toward the next steps in the Artemis program.
At the Saturday event, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the public that the “long wait is over,” in remarks introducing Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy Hansen. In the account of the homecoming, NASA framed the flight as a major milestone in a broader lunar return effort and as a foundation for later missions.
Isaacman said NASA already has its next Artemis flight in its sights, and the agency’s planning is now centered on reducing risk as the program moves from a high-profile flyby to more complex operations. Following the crew’s Pacific splashdown on Friday, entry flight director Rick Henfling said, “The next mission’s right around the corner.”
NASA’s next major mission in that progression is Artemis III. The Artemis III mission recently added to the docket for next year calls for astronauts who are yet to be named to practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander, or landers, while in orbit around Earth. NASA also said it would announce the Artemis III crew “soon,” signaling that the human elements of the program are moving into the next phase of selection and preparation.
The Artemis III docking mechanism is already undergoing its own development timeline at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The report said that the docking hardware is at Kennedy, while the latest model of SpaceX’s Starship is close to launching on a test flight from South Texas. It also said a scaled-down version of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon would attempt a lunar landing later this year, pointing to parallel progress on different spacecraft systems before the Artemis III and Artemis IV milestones.
Beyond Artemis III, NASA’s long-term landing goal includes Artemis IV in 2028, when two astronauts would attempt a moon landing aimed at the south polar region. Isaacman has described that region as the preferred site for a planned $20 billion to $30 billion moon base, and the report said vast amounts of ice are “almost certainly” hidden in permanently shadowed craters there—ice that could provide water and rocket fuel.
The competition among commercial providers forms a key part of how NASA plans to get to that landing. SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon are vying for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing, according to the report’s account of the program timeline leading from Artemis II to later missions.
NASA’s officials and observers also returned to what Artemis II achieved beyond the technical checklists—especially the mission’s place in public imagination and the astronauts’ emotional return. The report quoted Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who said flying the lunar module in low-Earth orbit was “a test pilot’s dream,” but he added that “the real astronauts” in the public’s mind were the ones who walked on the moon.
Wiseman and his crewmates shared emotion publicly after the trip, and the report said that during the nearly 10-day journey they tearfully requested that a fresh, bright lunar crater be named after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. The astronauts also shared their feelings for one another and for Earth, describing the planet as an “exquisite yet delicate oasis” that they said needs better care.
As the Artemis II crew settled back into family reunion mode, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said in the report that the hardest part for people overseeing the mission is the tension between becoming so close to the crews and families and then having to send them on. He said he monitored Friday’s reentry “alongside the astronauts’ spouses and children,” and he described the challenge as managing risk in a way that keeps the program from being paralyzed by fear.
Wiseman, after being reunited with his two daughters, issued what the report called a rallying cry at the homecoming event, telling astronauts in blue flight suits that “It is time to go and be ready,” and saying it takes “courage” and “determination” while adding that the team would support them “every single step of the way.”