NASA overhauls Artemis moon program — and Blue Origin’s lander may be given a bigger role

NASA is reworking its Artemis moon program to add a test mission for commercial lunar landers in low Earth orbit next year, with a crewed lunar landing to follow in 2028 at the earliest. The revised plan raises the profile of the Blue Moon lander that’s being built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.

“We’re all in!” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to X.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took charge of the space agency last December, announced the schedule shift today. “This is going to be our pathway back to the moon,” he said.

The next step in the pathway is the same as it has been: NASA is getting set to use its giant Space Launch System rocket to launch four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon in an Orion capsule. That Artemis 2 mission is currently set for no earlier than April, due to an issue with a helium pressurization leak that forced this week’s rollback from the launch pad for troubleshooting.

NASA’s previous plan called for following up on Artemis 2 with a crewed lunar landing next year for Artemis 3. However, the development of the SpaceX Starship lander for that mission has proceeded more slowly than expected.

Under the new plan, Artemis 3 would serve as a crewed test mission for SpaceX’s Starship lander and/or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander — and for the spacesuits that are being developed for the crew’s extravehicular activities. The Artemis program’s first crewed lunar landing would follow in 2028, presumably using either Starship or Blue Moon.

This parallels the mission timeline for the Apollo moon effort back in the 1960s, which included a lander test mission in Earth orbit for the lunar module during Apollo 9, just months before Apollo 10’s moon-orbiting test mission and the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

NASA’s revised mission architecture also cancels plans for the development of a next-generation upper stage for the SLS rocket for missions beyond Artemis 4. NASA and its commercial partners would instead work on a rocket configuration that would allow for at least one mission to the lunar surface every year.

“Standardizing vehicle configuration, increasing flight rate and progressing through objectives in a logical, phased approach is how we achieved the near-impossible in 1969, and it is how we will do it again,” Isaacman said.

Boeing, which had been in charge of developing the next-generation upper stage, signaled that it was on board with the new approach. “As NASA lays out an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are prepared to meet the increased production needs,” Steve Parker, the president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said in a news release.

NASA said it would refine its plan for next year’s Artemis 3 test mission after completing detailed reviews with its industry partners.

Blue Origin is already accelerating its Blue Moon development program. Last month, the Kent, Wash.-based company announced that it was putting its suborbital New Shepard program on hold for at least two years to shift resources to Blue Moon and other lunar projects.

An uncrewed, cargo-carrying version of the Blue Moon lander is due for launch to the lunar surface sometime this year, and three years ago, Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to provide a crewed version of the lander for missions starting with Artemis 5 in the 2029 time frame.

When hints of a revised Artemis mission timeline began popping up last year, a Blue Origin executive said the Blue Moon development timeline could be revised as well.

“If NASA wants to accelerate us to go faster, then we would ramp that up faster,” John Couluris, vice president of Blue Origin’s lunar permanence division, said last September. “It’s right now gauged on Artemis 5. If they want us to go earlier, we would engage a lot faster.”