NASA reshapes Artemis: Earth-orbit lander test in 2027, SpaceX and Blue Origin race for a 2028 Moon landing

The Space Race (31 October 2026) breaks down the Artemis overhaul NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman laid out at Kennedy Space Center on 23 October 2026.

Artemis III stays in Earth orbit. Targeted for summer 2027, the 14-day mission will fly four astronauts on Orion to low Earth orbit to rendezvous and dock with test versions of both commercial landers, SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon, rather than landing on the Moon.

Artemis IV becomes the first landing, in 2028. Neither provider is assigned to a specific landing mission any more; NASA will pick whichever lander is ready first, with a second crewed landing to follow.

Two different routes to the Moon. Starship will be refuelled in low Earth orbit by tanker flights, dock with Orion near Earth and push the stack to lunar orbit. Blue Origin defers in-space refuelling and instead uses three transfer stages on New Glenn launches to send its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander to an elliptical polar lunar orbit, with a lower lunar orbit under study. The near-rectilinear halo orbit planned for Gateway-era missions is dropped for these flights.

Supporting cast. NASA is working with United Launch Alliance on an extended Centaur V upper stage for SLS, and Axiom Space provides the moonwalking suits.

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