Next Up For the Artemis Moon Mission Program? NASA Doesn’t Quite Know

Space agency has a broad plan for its upcoming decade of lunar missions, but specifics must still be ironed out.

Jack Daleo

Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule stand on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in February. [Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky]

Key Takeaways:

NASA's Artemis program has significantly revised its timeline, delaying the first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV (early 2028) and reassigning Artemis III as a low-Earth orbit test flight to build capability.
A major challenge is the uncertain readiness and selection of Human Landing System (HLS) providers, with SpaceX's Starship facing delays and its contract being reopened to competition.
Key systems for upcoming missions, including the HLS vehicles, SLS upper stage, and Orion heat shield, still face development and testing uncertainties.
Despite these immediate challenges, NASA maintains an ambitious long-term vision to establish a permanent moon base and continuous human presence by 2032, using the moon as a stepping stone for future space exploration.

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NASA’s Artemis II mission made history as the first human spaceflight to orbit the moon in more than half a century, sending four astronauts farther from Earth than any human has ever ventured. But the space agency does not quite know what will come next.

The first crewed lunar landing under Artemis is tentatively scheduled for Artemis IV in early 2028 after NASA overhauled the program in February. Artemis III, originally intended to be a crewed landing, was changed to a low-Earth orbit test flight scheduled for mid-2027.