Overview
- NASA added a low‑Earth‑orbit Artemis III demonstration in 2027 to validate rendezvous and docking between Orion and one or both commercial human landing systems from SpaceX and Blue Origin, along with in‑space tests of the xEVA lunar suit.
- The roadmap now calls for two crewed lunar landings in 2028, with Artemis IV early in the year and Artemis V late in the year beginning initial base‑infrastructure work.
- To increase launch cadence, the agency will standardize SLS, replace the interim cryogenic propulsion stage with a new second stage, and drop the Exploration Upper Stage and Mobile Launcher 2 due to delays.
- Engineers report they repaired Artemis II’s upper‑stage helium‑flow problem traced to a quick‑disconnect seal, are validating the fix, and plan to roll the vehicle back to the pad this month for a possible April launch window.
- NASA says the updated cadence aims for roughly one lunar mission per year after 2028.