Overview
- Artemis II returned to Earth with a Pacific splashdown southwest of San Diego, where divers in small boats recovered the crew after strong currents blocked a standard ship pickup.
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said work on Artemis III will start this month inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.
- Under the revised schedule, the 2027 Artemis III mission will stay in low Earth orbit to practice docking Orion with lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
- Artemis IV is now targeted to return astronauts to the Moon in 2028, setting the next opportunity for a surface walk since Apollo ended in 1972.
- Program plans include a temporary pause of the Gateway lunar station and a goal to build a permanent base by 2032, alongside new partnership steps with Italy on habitation modules and rising competition from China, which is pursuing a 2030 crewed landing and has a lander in lunar orbit.