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 been restructured, pushing the first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV in early 2028, with Artemis III now a low-Earth orbit test flight to build capability incrementally.
Significant uncertainty surrounds the Human Landing System (HLS) provider for Artemis III and IV, primarily due to delays with SpaceX's Starship, prompting NASA to re-evaluate existing contracts and seek alternative solutions.
Upcoming missions face critical technical challenges, including the need to fully test combined spacecraft systems during Artemis III and address uncertainties with the SLS upper stage and Orion heat shield for Artemis IV.
Despite immediate hurdles, NASA maintains ambitious long-term goals for Artemis, aiming for semiannual crewed landings by 2028 and establishing a permanent moon base with continuous human presence by 2032.

See a mistake? Contact us.

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.