NASA said Friday it is revamping its Artemis lunar exploration program to make it more like the fast-paced Apollo program a half-century ago, adding an additional training flight before attempting a lunar landing with a high-risk crew in two years.
The overhaul in the flight lineup came just two days after NASA’s new Moon rocket returned to its hangar for further repairs, and a safety panel warned the space agency against scaling back its highly ambitious goals for the first human lunar landing since 1972.
Artemis 2, a flyby of the moon by four astronauts, is on hold until at least April due to rocket problems.
A follow-up mission, Artemis 3, was aiming to land near the moon’s south pole by another pair of astronauts about three years ago. But with long gaps between flights and growing concerns about the readiness of lunar landers and lunar walking suits, new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the mission will instead focus on launching a lunar lander into Earth orbit in 2027 for docking training by astronauts flying in the Orion capsule.
The new plan calls for astronauts landing on the moon — and perhaps even two moon landings — in 2028.
“Everyone agrees. This is the only way forward,” Isaacman said.
A hydrogen fuel leak and helium flow problems that struck a Space Launch System rocket on the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center earlier this month have also plagued Artemis’ first uncrewed test flight in 2022.
Another three-year gap looms between Artemis 2 and the astronauts landing on the moon as originally envisioned, Isaacman said.
Isaacman stressed that it “should be incredibly clear” that three years between flights is unacceptable. He wants to reduce it to one year or even less.
Isaacman, the tech billionaire who bought his own flights into orbit and performed the world’s first private spacewalk, took over leadership of NASA in December.
He said that during NASA’s famous Apollo program, the first flight of astronauts to the moon was followed by two other missions before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. What’s more, he added, is that the Apollo missions to the Moon followed each other in quick succession, just as the earlier projects Mercury and Gemini had fast flight rates, sometimes only a few months apart.
Twenty-four Apollo astronauts flew to the Moon from 1968 to 1972, and 12 of them landed.
“Nobody at NASA forgot their history books,” Isaacman said. “They knew how to do it.” “And now we are putting it into practice.”
To speed up the pace and reduce risks, NASA will standardize its Space Launch System rockets moving forward, Isaacman said. These are the huge rockets that will launch astronauts to the moon aboard Orion capsules. At the same time, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are accelerating their work on landers needed to transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface.
Next year will see the Orion crew rendezvous in Earth orbit with SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon spacecraft, or both, Isaacman said. This is similar to the methodical approach that worked so well during the Apollo mission in the late 1960s, he noted. Apollo 8, the first astronauts’ flight to the Moon, was followed by two other missions before Armstrong and Aldrin aimed for the lunar surface.
“We have to go back to basics and do what we know works,” he said.
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Committee recommended this week that NASA review its goals for Artemis III “in light of the challenging mission objectives.” The committee said it was necessary for the space agency to do so if the United States hoped to safely return astronauts to the moon. Isaacman said the revised Artemis flight plan addresses the committee’s concerns and is supported by industry and the Trump administration.
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