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NASA is aiming to launch its third Space Launch System rocket in June.
Historically, speed and agility are not terms typically used to describe buildups of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, the NASA-owned and -operated heavy-lift transport developed for crewed, deep-space travel.
But six months after the Artemis II astronauts splashed down from a test run around the Moon, the third Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is being stacked inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for transport to the launchpad for a hot-fire test before year-end.
- Space Launch System tanking test planned this year
- Three launches are expected for the Artemis III campaign
NASA’s goal is to launch the SLS and a four-member Orion crew next summer for the new Artemis III flight test in low Earth orbit (LEO). NASA added the mission to the Artemis architecture in February to buy down risk for the first attempt to land astronauts on the Moon since 1972. That flight remains targeted for 2028, a time frame intended not only to plant the Trump administration’s footprint in space history during its current term but also to precede a lunar landing by Chinese taikonauts planned for 2030.
Described by mission planners as one of the most complex campaigns NASA has attempted, Artemis III is baselined for 14 days next summer but could last as long as 17 days. With the SLS rocket on the pad and its four-member Orion crew poised to launch, an uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is slated to kick off the three-launch, three-spacecraft campaign with liftoff from the newly rebuilt Cape Canaveral SFS Launch Complex 36A.
Perched on top of the rocket will be a test version of the Blue Moon Mark 2 human landing system (HLS) in development for NASA.
The HLS test vehicle, designed to linger on orbit for up to 30 days to provide some schedule flexibility, is planned to be deployed in a circular orbit about 273 mi. above Earth.
Following checkouts of the Blue Moon HLS, NASA would launch the SLS and an Orion capsule carrying Artemis III astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, all with NASA, and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Luca Parmitano. Orion is scheduled to enter an elliptical Earth orbit initially, ranging from 18 mi. to 1,122 mi., then use its ESA-provided service module to perform a series of maneuvers to transition to a circular orbit at about 345 mi. for thermal stabilization.
“Because each spacecraft operates in slightly different orbital regimes optimized for its mission requirements, Artemis III requires a carefully choreographed sequence of orbital maneuvers and rendezvous operations throughout the flight,” NASA noted in an Oct. 23 press release.
In their first orbital rendezvous, NASA and Blue Origin are expected to dock their spacecraft on the third day of the mission. Over the next two days, up to two Orion crewmembers at a time are expected to board the Blue Moon for checkouts of its environmental control and life support system, avionics and software, fluid tanks, values and thrusters, the power-generating solar arrays, thermal control and radiator systems, and the lunar crew module’s primary structure.
While Blue Origin flew 17 crews into suborbital space during its 2015-26 New Shepard program, none of those included NASA astronauts. The HLS demo flight would not only mark the company’s first orbital mission with crew but also support potential vehicle certification by NASA.
As NASA wraps up orbital operations with Blue Origin, SpaceX will launch the third and final mission of the Artemis III campaign. A Starship HLS test vehicle is slated to lift off onboard a Super Heavy booster from Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A, an upcoming new site for Starship operations. That launch, which is targeted for the sixth day of the Artemis III mission, is intended to put the Starship into a 237-mi.-high orbit, optimized for communications coverage.
The Orion crew is scheduled to rendezvous and dock with the Starship on Day 8 of the mission for a 2-hr. encounter that is not planned to include ingress. NASA and SpaceX aim to evaluate spacecraft controllability, communications, integrated software performance and the dynamics associated with docking and undocking operations.
The Starship for Artemis III is designed to have a docking system built onto the nose cone. “We want to learn how to control attitude together, how we’re going to fly these vehicles together and how we’re going to operate,” NASA’s Artemis III Program Manager Jeremy Parsons told reporters on Oct. 23.
Once undocked from the Starship, the astronauts are scheduled to spend the remainder of their mission on a variety of test objectives to support future Artemis missions, including additional evaluations of the Orion Crew Survival System suits, docking sensor tests, acoustic and thermal measurements, human factors assessments, and a range of science and technology demonstrations, including testing concepts for returning lunar samples to Earth.
The primary goal of Artemis III is for crews and flight controllers to practice the rendezvous, docking, habitation and operational procedures needed for future Artemis crewed landings near the Moon’s south pole, beginning in 2028. “Everything we do on Artemis III is designed to reduce risk on our future lunar lander missions,” Parsons said.
Other preparations for the Artemis IV Moon landing include uncrewed test launches of the Blue Moon and Starship HLS vehicles and evaluation of their abilities to transfer propellant and land at the lunar south pole, activities intended to inform NASA’s decision on which lander will transport the Artemis IV astronauts to and from the surface of the Moon.
The agency plans to establish its international and commercially planned Moon Base over three phases. Phase 1, lasting until 2029, includes examination of the lunar south pole with robotic as well as crewed missions. Phase 2, lasting into 2032, is planned to establish an initial human presence. Phase 3 is slated to establish a sustained human presence to prepare for human expeditions to Mars.
Artemis III is roughly 90 days behind schedule; avionics in the lunar-build supply chain is the key schedule driver, NASA said. “Across the board, we’re looking at how can NASA intervene” to help, Parsons told reporters.
Another key milestone toward the Artemis IV lunar landing is an orbital refueling demonstration by SpaceX planned for early 2027. “This is going to be a first-of-its-kind SpaceX mission where they’re going to launch two Starships in quick succession—one from Boca Chica [in Texas] and one from the Kennedy Space Center—and they’re going to prove out how propellant transfer works on orbit to a depot,” Parsons said. “The hardware and concepts . . . are very mature.”
Under a revised concept of operations, Starship propellant aggregation for Artemis IV still occurs in LEO before an SLS launches with the Orion crew, allowing time for additional refueling, if needed, and schedule flexibility.
The Starship lander docking with the Orion would take place in high Earth orbit, with the Starship providing the translunar injection burn, rather than the Orion. “Our teams found that if we modified Orion to be able to be pushed, we could drastically simplify the number of launches and really improve the probability of success of the mission,” Parsons said. “Those mods on Orion have already been greenlit. They’re well underway.”
The revised concept of operations removes the near-rectilinear halo orbit for docking—“a costly orbit that requires quite a bit from a propellant perspective,” Parsons noted.
SpaceX is preparing for its 15th flight test of the Starship-Super Heavy system, currently flying from Starbase, Texas. Starship launches from the Kennedy Space Center are slated to begin in late 2026 or early 2027.
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