NASA Adds Mission to Artemis Lunar Program, Updates Architecture
As part of a Golden Age of exploration and discovery, NASA announced Friday that the agency is increasing the cadence of missions under the Artemis program to meet the national goal of returning American astronauts to the Moon and establishing a lasting presence. This includes standardizing the vehicle’s configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and making at least one surface landing every year thereafter.
While the Artemis II launch teams prepare in the coming weeks, the Artemis III mission, now in 2027, is designed to test the systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit in order to prepare for a landing of Artemis IV in 2028. This new mission will try to include a rendezvous and docking of one or both Blue landers from Space, X and commercial landers from Space,X checkout of life support, communications, and propulsion systems, as well as tests of the new Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) suit. NASA will further explain this test flight after detailed reviews are completed between NASA and our industry partners. The agency will share specific goals for the updated Artemis III mission in the near future.
NASA’s recently announced workforce directive is a key factor in accelerating this. NASA will rebuild the core competencies of the civil servant workforce including more in-house and side-by-side development work with our partners at Artemis, enabling a safer, more reliable, and faster launch cadence.
“NASA needs to standardize its approach, safely increase the flight rate, and implement the President’s national space policy. With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical enemy increasing every day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our goals,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Standardizing vehicle configuration, increasing flight rate and advancing objectives in a logical, phased manner, is how we achieved the near-impossible in 1969 and how we will do it again.”
“After the successful completion of the Artemis I flight test, the upcoming Artemis II flight test, and the new, more robust test procedure of Artemis III, it should not be complicated to change the configuration of the SLS and Orion stack to perform the next Artemis missions,” said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. “There is too much learning left on the table and too much development and production risk in front of us. Instead, we want to continue testing as we fly and fly. We look back to the wisdom of the people who designed Apollo. The entire sequence of Artemis flights should represent a step-by-step capability build, with each step bringing us closer to our needs to be able to the considerable progress that we have unnecessary risk given the previous findings Therefore, we want to fly the landing missions in the same configuration as on Earth as possible – this means using a high stage and pad systems as close to the configuration of ‘Block 1’ as possible in-space, landing, and surface EVA operations as well, while we change the mission sequence in the spirit of Apollo. mindset, obsessed with system reliability and crew safety as keys to mission success.
“Boeing is a proud partner in the Artemis mission and our team is honored to contribute to NASA’s vision for American space leadership,” said Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “The SLS core stage remains the most powerful rocket stage in the world, and the only one that can carry American astronauts directly to the moon and beyond in a single launch. As NASA sets an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are ready to meet increased production needs. With a rocket designed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, built at NASA’s Kennedy Facility factory in New Orleans, Alabama NASA’s Space Center in Florida, we are ready to meet the increased demand.
The announcement came during a press conference at NASA Kennedy where leaders also discussed the status of the Artemis II mission. NASA rolled the SLS and Orion spacecraft into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on February 25 for the Ayo ahead of the next launch opportunities for a test flight in April.
When the Artemis II hardware was returned to the VAB, the teams immediately began working on the helium issue discovered in the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and prepared for several actions including replacing the batteries of the flight termination system, end-to-end testing for range safety requirements, etc.
“I am grateful to Administrator Isaacman for taking this bold step and moving quickly to ensure we have the support and resources needed to launch Artemis astronauts to the Moon every year,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our team is ready for the challenge of a successful Artemis II mission, and soon after, to be able to perform a more frequent rhythm of missions to the Moon.”
For more on Artemis’ campaign, visit:
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Bethany Stevens / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
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