NASA has announced a tightened and ambitious schedule for its lunar program, aiming to return astronauts to the Moon's surface by 2028. This accelerated timeline was revealed on October 23 during a press conference dedicated to speeding up the agency's lunar initiatives. The push follows the appointment of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator in December 2025, marking what some Republican lawmakers in Washington describe as a second "race to the Moon."
The agency plans to conduct three Artemis missions by the end of 2028. The first of these, Artemis-3, is targeted for launch in the summer of 2027. This mission involves a complex orbital choreography where the Orion spacecraft will dock with two lunar landers while in low Earth orbit. The sequence begins with the launch of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander aboard the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket.
Once the Blue Moon reaches orbit, NASA intends to launch the Orion capsule carrying its crew on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to dock with it. The mission crew consists of Americans Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, alongside Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Upon docking, the four astronauts will board the Blue Moon to evaluate its technologies for a duration of two days before the subsequent missions aim for actual lunar landings in 2028.
Sources: Le Monde Sciences.