Overview
- At a White House event honoring the four Artemis II astronauts, President Trump said the U.S. has a good chance to put Americans back on the Moon before his term ends in January 2029.
- NASA’s plan calls for a lunar surface return in 2028 under the Artemis program, pending successful certification of a commercial lander.
- The landing timeline hinges on SpaceX and Blue Origin completing and proving their lunar landers for NASA.
- The Artemis II test flight in early April flew around the Moon on the SLS rocket and Orion capsule, reaching more than 406,000 km from Earth.
- China aims to send astronauts to the Moon around 2030, which raises the stakes for keeping the U.S. schedule.