{"id":580655,"date":"2026-04-13T00:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580655\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T00:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:13:08","slug":"whats-next-for-artemis-program-after-successful-flight-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580655\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s next for Artemis program after successful flight to the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019ll be one quick step for man.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon within<\/a> two years after Artemis II\u2019s successful return to Earth on Friday \u2014 with the program\u2019s final test flight, Artemis III, already scheduled for next year.<\/p>\n

Artemis III is expected to launch sometime in mid-2027, with the mission remaining in Earth\u2019s orbit and testing out flight and rendezvous procedures with new lunar landers being designed by Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin and Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Artemis II\u2019s crew (from left) Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen and Victor Glover celebrate their achievement after Friday\u2019s splashdown off California. BILL INGALLS\/NASA\/HANDOUT\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

As in the Apollo days, the crew capsule will have to link up with<\/a> a lunar lander in space while flying to the moon for the landing \u2014 a delicate procedure that takes careful planning and practice.<\/p>\n

If everything goes well with Artemis III\u2019s tests, Artemis IV is scheduled to have humans walking on the moon again by 2028, with a landing on the lunar south pole.<\/p>\n

But despite the great accomplishments of Artemis II\u2019s 10-day flight around the moon and back, Artemis III\u2019s success is far from guaranteed \u2014 especially since the lunar landers still having a long way to go before they\u2019re ready for a mission in Earth\u2019s orbit, let alone days on the moon.<\/p>\n

The SpaceX lander \u2014 a massive re-usable rocket known as the \u201cStarship\u201d \u2014 has only had two fully successful flights out of 11 tests, and neither of those reached orbit, according to Space.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This rendering shows the SpaceX \u201cStarship\u201d lander, a massive re-usable rocket that has a long way to go before landing on the moon. SpaceX<\/p>\n

The Blue Origin lander design is a more conventional lunar lander but is also far from being flight-ready. Blue Origin<\/p>\n

That lander has also never refueled in space \u2014 as it will need to do for a moon mission \u2014 and hasn\u2019t flown with the life-support systems required to keep astronauts alive on the moon.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s lander, \u201cBlue Moon,\u201d hasn\u2019t been to space at all.<\/p>\n

It also remains unclear which lander will be a part of the Artemis IV landing. Schedules from 2025 called for SpaceX\u2019s lander to make the first one and Blue Origin\u2019s to make<\/a> one after that, but the final call will likely be determined by which one performs better during Artemis III.<\/p>\n

Despite such uncertainties, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said at a Saturday press conference with the Artemis II astronauts that Artemis III was moving full steam ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things, based on the information we have available today, from feedback from our vendors, that we know are achievable,\u201d Isaacman said, adding that NASA had \u201cthe first senior-level Artemis III mission design discussion\u201d just a day after Artemis II splashed down.<\/p>\n

Artemis II flies around the moon during its historic flight last week. NASA\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Artemis II mirrored 1968\u2019s Apollo 8 with its test of the mission\u2019s rocket and life support systems, while Artemis III will follow Apollo 9\u2019s 1969 test of the lunar landing system in Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

Apollo 9 spent 10 days orbiting Earth and was the first mission to fly a lunar lander and rendezvous with it \u2014 just as Artemis III will do.<\/p>\n

As Apollo 9\u2019s success opened the door for Apollo 11\u2019s launch just months later, Artemis III is currently scheduled to determine whether Artemis IV will be able to land on the moon in 2028.<\/p>\n

Apollo 9 was followed by a full landing dress-rehearsal \u2014 Apollo 10 \u2014 which sent a lunar lander within miles of moon\u2019s surface, but so far no such mission is scheduled for Artemis.<\/p>\n

Artemis III was initially supposed to be the landing mission, but NASA announced in February that it would remain in Earth\u2019s orbit to test the landing systems.<\/p>\n

Artemis II lauched humans back to deep space April 1, kicking off humanity\u2019s return to the moon. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The moon-landing mission\u2019s crew has not yet been revealed, though it has likely already been selected.<\/p>\n

Plans have already been announced for a long-term moon base, which would be part of the goal of a manned Mars landing in the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the beginning,\u201d Isaacman said Friday after the Artemis II splashdown. \u201cWe are going to get back into doing this with frequency, sending missions to the moon, until we land on it in 2028 and start building our base.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis II crew was also already cheering on future missions during the triumphant Saturday press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to go, and be ready,\u201d commander Reid Wiseman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes courage, it takes determination, and you all are freakin\u2019 goin\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019ll be one quick step for man. NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon within two years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[42141,17179,7042,718,79,193,13059,1513,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-580655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-artemis-ii","9":"tag-blue-origin","10":"tag-moon","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-space-program","15":"tag-spacex","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}