As part of the Golden Age of exploration and discovery, NASA is increasing the cadence of missions under the Artemis programme.
Expanding the Artemis programme is set to achieve the national objective of returning American astronauts to the Moon and establishing an enduring presence.
The expansions include standardising vehicle configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and conducting at least one surface landing each year thereafter.
Artemis IV: A new mission for 2028
As teams prepare to launch Artemis II in the weeks ahead, the Artemis III mission, now scheduled for 2027, will be designed to test systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit to prepare for an Artemis IV landing in 2028.
This new mission will endeavour to include a rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, in-space tests of the docked vehicles, integrated checkout of life support, communications, and propulsion systems, as well as tests of the new Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) suits.
NASA will further define this test flight after completing detailed reviews with its industry partners.
A growing workforce is key to the mission’s success
NASA’s recently announced workforce directive is a key factor in enabling the scale-up of the Artemis programme.
The agency will rebuild core competencies in the civil servant workforce, including more in-house and side-by-side development work with Artemis partners, enabling a safer, more reliable, and faster launch cadence.
“NASA must standardise its approach, increase flight rate safely, and execute on the President’s national space policy. With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives,” stated NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
“Standardising vehicle configuration, increasing flight rate and progressing through objectives in a logical, phased approach, is how we achieved the near-impossible in 1969, and it is how we will do it again.”
Crucial testing stages needed for the Artemis programme to go ahead safely
NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya explained: “After successful completion of the Artemis I flight test, the upcoming Artemis II flight test, and the new, more robust test approach to Artemis III, it is needlessly complicated to alter the configuration of the SLS and Orion stack to undertake subsequent Artemis missions.
“There is too much learning left on the table and too much development and production risk in front of us. Instead, we want to keep testing like we fly and have flown. We are looking back at the wisdom of the folks who designed Apollo.
“The entire sequence of Artemis flights needs to represent a step-by-step build-up of capability, with each step bringing us closer to our ability to perform the landing missions safely.”
Current status of the Artemis II mission
The announcement came during a news conference at NASA Kennedy, where leaders also discussed the status of the Artemis II mission.
NASA rolled the SLS and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on 25 February for repairs ahead of the next launch opportunities for the test flight in April.
Once the Artemis II hardware was back in the VAB, teams immediately began work on the helium issue discovered on the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and prepared for several actions, including replacing batteries in the flight termination system, conducting end-to-end testing to meet range safety requirements, and more.
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, concluded: “Our team is up to the challenge of a successful Artemis II mission, and soon thereafter, enabling a more frequent cadence of Moon missions.”