NASA overhauls Artemis program, delaying Moon landing to 2028

"NASA must standardize 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. Standardizing 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."

"NASA is making major changes to its Artemis Moon program. The new mission will take the place of Artemis 3, which previously would have seen NASA attempt to land on the Moon for the first time since 1972. The flight will also see the agency test a new spacesuit made by Axiom Space. NASA will attempt to return humans to the Moon during Artemis 4 sometime in 2028."

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced major changes to the Artemis Moon program, introducing an additional 2027 mission to test commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. This new mission replaces the original Artemis 3, which was planned as the first crewed Moon landing since 1972. The redesigned Artemis 3 will conduct lander testing in low Earth orbit using a new Axiom Space spacesuit. Actual Moon landing attempts will occur during Artemis 4 in 2028, with potential for additional missions that year. The restructuring follows NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Plan recommendations to reduce mission risk and increase flight rate safely while maintaining competitiveness amid geopolitical pressures.

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