NASA’s Artemis moon exploration programme is getting a major makeover

NASA is shaking up the plan for its Artemis moon missions. In a press conference on 27 February, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced significant changes to the agency’s plans to send humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo programme ended in 1972.

The Artemis II mission is slated to launch in the next few months, but has had a pair of difficult practice runs. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket kept springing leaks when fuel was being pumped in and it ended up being rolled back from the launchpad for analysis and repairs. The last time SLS was launched was in 2022.

Artemis II is a mission to send astronauts in a loop around the moon, in preparation to send a crew to land on the lunar surface with Artemis III. That plan has changed now: Artemis III will no longer be a landing mission, but one to test the Orion crew capsule’s ability to dock with a lander in orbit, as well as the space suits for the eventual landing.

This may seem like a step backwards, but it comes alongside a plan to increase the frequency of launches. The new approach will see Artemis IV and possibly Artemis V land on the moon in 2028.

“The entire sequence of Artemis flights needs to represent a step-by-step build-up of capability, with each step bringing us closer to our ability to perform the landing missions,” NASA official Amit Kshatriya said in a statement. “Each step needs to be big enough to make progress, but not so big that we take unnecessary risk given previous learnings.”

There were originally plans to upgrade the upper stage of the SLS rocket for future missions, but Isaacman announced in the press conference that NASA will now aim for a “standardised” version instead of making major changes every few missions. “We’re not going to turn every rocket into a work of art,” Isaacman said during the press conference.

These shifts mark a change in the overall philosophy of the Artemis programme, testing every part of the rocket and mission plan thoroughly before each step and taking small steps quickly instead of making big jumps every few years. Isaacman said that he hopes this will eliminate the delays that have plagued Artemis from the beginning, creating a safer and more sensible lunar exploration programme.