CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct. 24 (TodayViralUSA) — NASA has laid out its most detailed plan yet for Artemis III, a complex test flight that will keep four astronauts in orbit around Earth while they practice docking with prototype moon landers built by Blue Origin and SpaceX, a dress rehearsal for a crewed lunar landing the agency is targeting for 2028.
Agency leaders presented the mission’s concept of operations at a news conference at Kennedy Space Center on Friday that ran for more than two hours. Artemis III is planned to launch in 2027, with The Associated Press reporting that NASA says it remains on track for next summer.
Three rockets, one campaign
“We’re launching three of the most powerful rockets in the world, and undertaking what is likely the most complicated launch campaign ever undertaken,” Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons said, according to Space.com.
Under the plan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will first loft a test version of the company’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander into a circular orbit about 273 miles above Earth, where it can wait for up to 30 days. Days later, once the lander is confirmed healthy, NASA’s Space Launch System will launch the Orion spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano on a planned 14-day mission.
Docking with two landers
After checking out Orion during the first two days, the crew will rendezvous and dock with the Blue Moon test vehicle. NASA says the operation is its first chance to see how Orion and a commercial lander work together in space, including their software, guidance and communications systems, and crew members will enter the lander for systems checks.
Orion will then undock and move on to a second rendezvous with a SpaceX Starship Version 3 test article, which will launch later in the mission because of its shorter time in orbit. That docking test is expected to last up to two hours, and the crew will not enter Starship. NASA and SpaceX plan to evaluate how the two spacecraft handle as a docked pair and how docking and undocking affect them.
Road to a 2028 landing
NASA redefined Artemis III earlier as an Earth-orbit demonstration rather than a landing, shifting the first touchdown near the moon’s south pole to Artemis IV. The agency also said its landers and Orion will no longer meet in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon, but in orbits tailored to each company’s system, a change meant to speed development. Both companies must fly an uncrewed demonstration before carrying astronauts, and NASA will choose which lander goes first based on readiness.
“NASA has no intention of sitting idly by as all the pieces come together,” Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. “That is not how Apollo succeeded, and it is not how the near-impossible is achieved.”
NASA said initial surface missions will aim for two moonwalks of about two hours each, using spacesuits supplied by Axiom Space.
Sources & Credits
- NASA: NASA’s Artemis III Mission to Test Future Moon Lander Operations
- NASA: NASA, Partners Accelerate Lander Development for 2028 Moon Missions
- NASA: NASA Shares Artemis Acceleration Plans for Moon Missions
- Space.com: NASA lays out plan for Artemis 3 moon-lander test flight
- Associated Press: NASA moving fast to build moon base, return astronauts to lunar surface
Image: NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft roll out to Launch Pad 39B for Artemis II (file photo), by NASA / Brandon Hancock, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Join the conversation