NASA delays Moon landing as Artemis III shifts to orbit mission

NASA has quietly restructured its Artemis programme, moving the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 from Artemis III to a later mission designated Artemis IV.

Administrator Jared Isaacman’s call to add an intermediate testing stage, turning what had been sold as a triumphant return to the lunar surface into something far more deliberate and methodical, put crew safety ahead of speed instead.

Under the reworked plan, Artemis III will launch an Orion spacecraft with four astronauts into low Earth orbit so it can dock with either SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon, or both human landing systems.

The hardware will get its “dress rehearsal” in orbital conditions before any crew actually tries a lunar descent, kind of like you test the bicycle before you ride it kind of thing.

The earlier timeline talked about Artemis III in mid-2027, then two crewed landings in 2028.

But that schedule has reportedly wobbled, now aiming more for late 2027, even as Isaacman has said on record that there are no delays, pointing to readiness limits on both Starship and Blue Moon systems, as if timing is just a matter of preparations.

Before any crewed landing can happen, NASA also needs to speed up its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, which right now mainly flies uncrewed cargo landers to help assemble lunar base infrastructure.

Firefly, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and other contractors will conduct uncrewed test flights of the Starship and Blue Moon vehicles, the same systems that will later carry humans to the surface.