Overview
- NASA posted 12,217 Artemis II photos Monday on its Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth site, opening a vast public archive from the April lunar flyby.
- The full dataset will move into NASA’s Planetary Data System, with preliminary science and operations reports due by October 2026 and crew audio to follow.
- NASA plans Earth‑orbit docking trials with one or both commercial lunar landers in 2027 ahead of a targeted crewed landing in 2028, a sequence that first requires uncrewed demos and in‑space refueling.
- NASA noted Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 prototype completed thermal‑vacuum testing in Chamber A at Johnson Space Center, while SpaceX continues Starship development toward refueling and flight readiness.
- The White House’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal seeks a 23% cut to NASA, a request that lawmakers have criticized and that could squeeze the timeline for the planned 2027 tests and 2028 landing.