Artemis III changed from being an historic, crewed Moon landing to a technology test in Earth orbit because of delays to Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Starship rocket. This is the vehicle intended to take astronauts from lunar orbit to its surface.
It was also judged to be too big a leap to go from looping the Moon, with Artemis II, to go straight to a lunar landing without first testing the procedure to dock with the lunar landers in Earth orbit.
In March 2026, the Government Accountability Office found that SpaceX had made “limited progress maturing the technologies needed for in-orbit refuelling and cryogenic propellant storage.”
Starship is so heavy that it cannot reach the Moon withot being refuelled in Earth orbit first. This involves launching a fleet of tanker vehicles which transfer cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen across in sequence, a highly ambitious manoever has not yet been tested.
Nasa’s Moon mission team received a further setback last month when its other partner, Blue Origin, watched its New Glenn rocket blow up during a routine engine test.
No one was hurt, but the launch pad was extensively damaged.