NASA has officially postponed its lunar landing mission to 2028. The Artemis III mission was originally scheduled to land on the moon in December 2025. Issues with the SLS rocket and Starship spacecraft have pushed it back to the Artemis IV mission, which is targeted for launch in 2028.
The Artemis II mission is being transformed into a mission to test systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit in preparation for the Artemis IV landing. Connectivity and docking tests with one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin will be conducted. Integrated life support, communications and propulsion systems, and testing of the new Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) suit will also be performed on the Artemis III mission.
The Artemis III mission has been delayed twice before, to 2026 and again to 2027. SpaceX's failure to test the Starship, which is required to carry a crew and lunar landing module, led NASA to ask a consortium led by Blue Origin to build a secondary landing module.
The Artemis II mission was supposed to launch earlier this month, but a leak in the SLS rocket's fuel tank has forced the mission to be postponed to an unannounced date. Artemis II will take four crew members around the moon in the Orion capsule, making them the furthest humans have traveled from Earth in history. They were also given the freedom to bring their own smartphones to record the historic moment.
