Artemis moves to Artemis III
NASA’s Artemis II ended with a Pacific splashdown on April 10 after nearly a 10‑day mission, and agency attention is shifting to Artemis III planning. (theweek.in) Officials say NASA has not yet named the Artemis III crew but expect an announcement “soon” as the agency talks about regular annual missions and longer‑term lunar infrastructure. (spacenews.com) (houstonpublicmedia.org)
NASA has closed the books on Artemis II and shifted to Artemis III, the next crewed step in its lunar program. (nasa.gov) Artemis II ended with an 8:07 p.m. Eastern splashdown in the Pacific on April 10, near San Diego, after 9 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes in flight. The four-person crew was Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (nasa.gov) (houstonpublicmedia.org) Artemis III is no longer described by NASA as the first landing mission of the campaign. NASA now says the 2027 flight will launch Orion on a Space Launch System rocket into low Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) That change came in a February 27 architecture update. NASA said Artemis III would test docked operations, life support, communications, propulsion, and the new lunar spacesuits before an Artemis IV landing in 2028. (nasa.gov) In plain terms, Artemis III is now a rehearsal in Earth orbit, not the moon landing itself. NASA says it will use that flight to prove that Orion and the commercial landing systems can meet up, connect, and operate together before astronauts try to descend to the lunar surface. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) NASA has not named the Artemis III crew. The agency says it will announce the mission design and crew closer to the 2027 launch, while reporting in recent days has described a crew announcement as expected “soon.” (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (houstonpublicmedia.org) NASA is also talking about a faster flight tempo than the program had before Artemis II flew. In the same February update, the agency said it was adding another mission in 2027 and aiming for at least one lunar surface landing every year after that. (nasa.gov) Artemis is NASA’s long campaign to send astronauts on progressively harder moon missions and use those flights to prepare for Mars. NASA says Artemis II was the first crewed Artemis mission and a step toward a longer-term human presence on and around the moon. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) The immediate handoff is already underway in Houston. After returning home, the Artemis II astronauts began postflight medical checks, reconditioning, and science debriefs as NASA teams turn to the next vehicle, the next crew, and the next test. (houstonpublicmedia.org)
