NASA's Moon landing plan changes again, with 2028 still the target
A crewed Artemis IV landing on the lunar surface remains scheduled for 2028, but the mission architecture has been reworked to move key docking steps closer to Earth.
By Sarah Montgomery ·
NASA's plan for returning astronauts to the Moon has changed in ways the agency had not previously laid out in full, even as the target date for a landing stays at 2028. In a news conference on Friday, the agency detailed a revised approach for how spacecraft would meet before traveling to the lunar surface.
The shift centers on SpaceX's Starship lander. Under the new approach, the Orion spacecraft would dock with Starship in high-Earth orbit, then travel together toward the Moon. This replaces an earlier requirement that the docking take place in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, an orbit that demanded more energy and presented other difficulties. Engineers at SpaceX raised the issue with NASA in meetings in early 2026. The problem disappeared after NASA canceled the Lunar Gateway earlier this year.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket would launch four times under its own plan, with no refueling of one spacecraft from another. The Blue Moon lander could meet Orion in low-lunar orbit. NASA said Artemis III would still fly by summer 2027 as a demonstration in which Orion docks near Earth with both Blue Moon and Starship. Artemis IV, which carries the actual surface landing, remains scheduled for 2028.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the schedule could be met. "This is an achievable path we are on right now," he said. "We have the mandate, we have the resources, and the support from our stakeholders to be able to execute, and that's what we intend to do."
Whether NASA and its partner companies can hold to those dates remains the open question. The agency said it had reviewed each element of Artemis and made changes intended to help lander companies move faster on their work.
The revised plans were presented publicly for the first time on Friday, though some of the underlying details had already been reported. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and agency leadership reviewed every part of the Artemis program and made adjustments meant to help the lander contractors proceed with their work.
